a Monkey's Anatomy
by Epsilon110
Summary: hindsight is 20/20, and Roo now knew he should've just left the damn Kaibō-Kaibō fruit at their ship. Now, because he dragged the damn fruit along, The Red Hair pirates have a monster in their hands. A smart Monkey D. Luffy.
1. Kaibō-Kaibō

**soooo... this had been lying around unposted for like- 2 years now? decided to dust it off (edit it so it's legible) and see how people react to it, might continue it if people ask for it.**

* * *

The calm morning of Foosha was disturbed by a pain-filled scream coming from the galleon currently docked at its port.

Makino, the resident barwoman, recognized the childlike voice "Luf?-"

Her voice was cut off by a collective "YOU IDIOT" by the owners of the galleon.

* * *

A half-hour later, a red-haired captain entered the bar, carrying a sniffling, black-haired 7-year-old on the verge of tears on his shoulders, his crew of pirates following the two cheering about a party, in honor of 'Luffy's idiocy and their greatness'.

The lead, on the other hand, sat down on the bar quietly, letting the boy off of his shoulders to sit down next to him.

With a sheepish smile, the captain looked at the fretting Barwoman. "Sorry about the scream earlier, this anchor-" he ruffled boys hair, "decided to 'show his mettle'." He pulled his hand back, pointing at the fresh stitching under the boy's left eye.

Makino almost vaulted over the bar at to get in front of the boy, kneeling to get a better look at his face; her speed might have left Soru users gaping. "Luffy… are you ok?" she asked as a mother would to a child with a scraped knee.

"It di-" he paused for a sniffle, "it didn't even hurt," Luffy answered with tears almost escaping his eyes, which earned him a tight hug from Makino.

The captain looked at the duo with a small smile. _She will b- she _**_is _**_a good mother _.

He felt a shiver run down his spine as Makino shifted her gaze to him. _Is that Conquerors Haki?_

"What. **_Happened_ **."

Shanks, the captain of the Red-Hair pirates, might have sailed under the great Gol D. Roger. his crew might've bested the Grand Line and reached the 'New World'.

But at that moment, in a bar full of his crew in East Blue, the weakest sea, he was genuinely _scared _for his life under the gaze of a barwoman.

Raising both of his hands defensively, he sputtered out "hestabbedhimselfwecouldn'tstopit."

He didn't _know _he could speak that fast.

Shanks sighed in relief as Makino shifted her attention back to Luffy and checked his wound over.

"There was no real damage, he should be fine other than the scar," Shanks parroted. The doctor of his crew was quite clear on that.

He saw Makino's shoulders relax at the news as she got up and kissed Luffy's forehead. "Don't do anything _that _stupid again," she whispered to the kid as she walked back to her post behind the bar, picking up the glass she had slammed down earlier and continued to clean it.

"But Makino, I had to do it to prove I wasn't scared of pain!" Luffy exclaimed, snapping back to his hard-headed stubbornness. He locked gazes with Shanks "Bring me out to sea with you next time," he commanded, as much as a 7-year-old could. "I wanna be a pirate, too."

Shanks chuckled at the child's demands he had to hand it to Luffy, the kid knew how to bounce back even after something like that. "No can do, _Anchor _. Not being able to swim is almost certainly a death sentence out at sea"

Luffy was having none of that. "It's fine as long as I stay on the ship," he retorted, pouting slightly. He started to punch the air, "and I can fight too, my punches are as strong as a pistol!" Makino smiled at the child's boasts; seeing Luffy get along with people was always fun.

"_ Wow, a pistol? _" Shanks rested his head on his hand as he whispered in the most unimpressed voice anyone on East Blue had heard.

Truth be told, he could feel that Luffy was probably stronger than most adults in the village; his observation Haki could tell that much. But _dammit, _teasing the child was too much fun to pass up.

His goading worked like a charm.

Luffy's lower jaw almost detached as he screamed as hard as he could at his tone-

The moment was cut short when his crew began blabbering about how grand it was to go on adventures and be free on the wide-open sea. "Don't give him ideas," Shanks grumbled- he could practically _see _Luffy's eyes sparkling with excitement. "He is too young for the sea and we all know-"

He was cut off. "Oi, Shanks I am not a kid anymore!" Shanks looked back at him and blinked twice. "My apologies. Here, have some juice," he mumbled, passing a glass of apple juice to the not-kid. Luffy thanked him and gulped down half of the contents.

That cracked Shanks, his calm demeanor breaking down as he started to chuckle, which quickly turned into full-blown belly-aching laughter, his crew, who had been watching the interaction, were laughing their asses off too. "You a-are such a kid!" Shanks managed to say between fits of laughter.

Luffy looked like he was about to burst at the seams with anger, but just when he was about to scream again, Benn, the first mate, spoke up, causing Luffy to look back at one of the tables. "Luffy, excuse our Captain" he said in a calm tone, a smile on his face as he lit the cigar between his lips. "He knows how dangerous being a pirate is." He crushed the match he had used to light the cigar in his hand. "He doesn't tease you without reason."

Before Luffy could argue, Makino spoke up, deciding to defuse the situation for now. "Hey Luffy, want something to eat?"

Benn swore the kid should have broken something with how fast he turned back to the bar. "YES!" Luffy practically screamed, "put it on my treasure tab!"

This pulled Shank's attention back onto Luffy. "What treasure?"

Luffy couldn't answer, as he was stuffing his face at the moment, so Makino answered in his stead. "He's going to pay me back with the treasures he finds when he becomes a pirate," she repeated what the lovable idiot had told her so many times.

"Yeah, _right... _" Shanks said teasingly, trying to get another rise out of Luffy, who, much to his dismay, didn't take the bait this time.

Shanks was about to try his luck again when he sensed a particularly weak bunch brimming with malicious intent walking over to the bar. Lazily glancing at the door over his shoulder, he watched it get kicked in. Everyone save for Luffy immediately turned their attention on the rather rowdy newcomers.

"So _these _are the pirates I've heard so much about, eh?" the leader of the bandits spat out, walking in with so much pompousness that Shanks thought he was a celestial Dragon for a few seconds. "They don't look like the brightest bunch, do they, boys?"

He walked over to the bar, attempting to look as intimidating as possible. "We're bandits," he announced.

Luffy looked up, a weird half-eaten fruit hanging out of the side of his mouth.

"-we don't want to cause any trouble, just give us 10 barrels of sake." Shanks was really struggling to not laugh at this point. _These guys? Causing trouble? They couldn't give Anchor over there indigestion if they tried._

"Sorry, we're all out of sake," Makino said with the sweetest smile she could muster. Any other man, especially any that knew the wrath of a woman- including Whitebeard- would have had the good sense to slowly walk away from the aura she was producing-

"That so? Then what are these guys drinking?" Higuma, the bandit leader, said, gesturing at the Red Hair pirates.

The plate Makino was holding started to crack "it's-"

"Water," Luffy cut her off. Higuma glared at the smart-ass at the counter. "These idiots don't know the difference between alcohol and water."

There was a few seconds of silence.

The bandits started to chuckle, and their snickering soon grew into roaring laughter. "As expected of worthless pirates. Even a little kid doesn't respect them!" Higuma choked out between his howling laughter. "Let's go, guys, this bar is out of booze," he wheezed out, rolling out with his group in search of alcohol elsewhere.

When the bandits left the silence returned.

The residents of the bar turned and looked at Luffy with wide eyes. Shanks, who had picked up a bottle of sake to give to the bandits, dropped it in his shock; the jarring thud shattered the tension in the room, causing everyone to start laughing. Even Makino was giggling at the event.

Benn, who was one of the more reserved ones, managed to calm down faster than the rest."Oi Luffy, what was all that ab- wait. What's that you're eating?"

"The weird fruit that was in this chest," he said, picking up the box on the counter and showing it to Benn.

The laughter stopped; more accurately, everything in the bar except him and Makino stopped.

Shanks looked like his eyeballs were gonna pop out with shock.

Luffy was too focused on the box to notice the change in atmosphere, Makino stopped giggling and gulped after seeing Shanks's face.

"It tasted weird too, kinda like- I don't know, like I had stuffed everything edible in my mouth," Luffy stuck his tongue out, "bleh- and some _in _edible stuff, too."

"O-oi Shanks," Makino broke the silence, worrying about Luffy's safety, "w-what was in that box?"

A few seconds passed in silence, causing Luffy to finally look around and see the frozen pirate crew. He started to get worried himself, "was it poisono- "

"I - it- he ate a Devil fruit" Shanks sputtered dumbly, his gaze still on Luffy.

"A devil wha-" Luffy and Makino started at the same time but were cut off when Shanks almost blurred in front of Luffy, punching him softly in the head.

"OI! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!" he screamed.

"No?" Luffy said, looking up at the man towering above him. _Did I eat something expensive?_

"NOW YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO SWIM, YOU IDIOT!" Shanks grabbed the sides of Luffy's head, only to let go when he felt killing intent coming from Makino. He slumped down, stumbling back into his seat.

"Shanks, what're you talking about?" asked the shaken kid. It was a first, seeing his idol this shocked, and what was he talking about, not being able to swim?

Benn answered his question, as Shank was still trying to process what had happened. "Luffy, do you know what Devil Fruits are?" This earned him a small shake of Luffy's head and his curious gaze. Benn sighed, "they are fruit that give people superhuman abilities." He took a drag of his cigar.

"Like super strength?" Luffy asked, tilting his head to the side like a confused puppy.

"A little more than that," Benn continued " they grant abilities like creating tremors, changing bodies to that of animals, or even substances."

Luffy was awestruck. He couldn't believe things like that could exist; he wouldn't have believed if it was coming from Shanks, it might have been one of his elaborate pranks. But Benn sounded serious and Luffy knew he never joked around with that to- _wait then._

"But in exchange, I lose my ability to swim?" The bar was silent again- the pirates were not used to the newfound intellect Luffy was displaying. It is going to take a while to get used to the new him.

"Yeah," Shanks answered, finally out of his stupor. "Those that eat a Devil Fruit are 'hated' by the sea, they lose all their power while in contact with it..." He stared straight into Luffy's eyes."...making them sink like a hammer in the water."

"Oh…" Luffy muttered, dumbly looking at the boxhe was still holding. He turned up to Shanks again, trying to find a silver lining in all of this. "So..."

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you know what power I got? … I don't feel _that _different," he finished.

Shanks would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't still a little shocked about the whole thing.

Sighing, he looked at Lucky-Roo who was sweating slightly. _Yep bringing the fruit here _**_was_ **_a bad idea._

Lucky-Roo took a few seconds to pull out an identification booklet, flipping to a bookmarked page. "Kaibō-Kaibō fruit-"

Luffy looked slightly confused,_ that's a weird naming structure. _"Autopsy fruit? What does tha-"

"Let him finish, Luffy," Shanks said, patting his shoulder to get him to calm down.

Roo cleared his throat. "The user can alter their anatomy to great extents, being able to form many different structures out of their bodies."he flipped a page; this was one long power list compared to the other fruits. "The most prevalent feature is the ability to copy characteristics of animals that the user has either consumed or knows the anatomy of."

"Dracule-tap-dancing-Mihawk, that's like a Zoan on steroids!" Shanks gasped.

Luffy was practically sparkling due to how awesome it all sounded, while Benn smirked, deciding to break the stiff atmosphere. "Oi Roo, does it say anything about making the user smarter?"

Luffy's head snapped to him, his face pouting. "What kind of friend are you?" he mumbled as the pirates started laughing again.

Luffy crossed his arms and turned back to Makino, deep in thought. "Theoretically, if I have full control of my anatomy wouldn't that mean I could cause my organs and brain to work much more efficiently?" he postulated quietly, playing around with one of the shells of the crab he had eaten.

The bar froze again.

The fruit had made him smarter beyond expectations.

at the shell in his hand, Luffy tried to activate his new-found powers.

Normally, this was a hard thing to accomplish for a Devil Fruit eater, as it was hard to adapt into the new powers they gained.

But for Luffy, it was apparently a different story.

His brain was in first gear his whole life, and now suddenly it had shifted into 7th.

And the combustion engine switched out for a jet engine.

He was always a quick learner, at least when it came to kinetic things, but this was something else.

His knuckles were slowly covered with a thick carapace, a plate extending over the back of his hand, his fingers connecting and morphing into the pincer of a crab. He almost fell over in surprise, staring at the transformation he had urged his body to go through.

Makino took a few steps back in shock, then rushed closer again, softly grasping his carapace-clad hand/pincer. "Did it hurt?" she mumbled, Luffy shook his head in response as the rest of the red hair crew nearly fell over.

Even the simplest skill took at least _some _time to perfect, but this kid, after just learning what a Devil Fruit even _is, _was already able to transform his hand.

"Guys, we are heading out, I need more Sake," Shanks muttered as they waved goodbye to the bar owner and the kid with the crab gauntlet.

* * *

A few days had passed after the Red Hair pirates left town, Luffy was pretty sure they were depleting the whole alcohol stockpile in the East Blue. He chuckled to himself at the mental image of Shanks aggressively drinking sake to try and calm down.

While the crew was missing, he had taken the opportunity to get better at using his new powers. He had quickly learned that just _seeing _an animal was not enough to copy its characteristics.

No matter how much he stared intently at beetles, he couldn't form a exoskeleton like they had, and he was not about to _eat_ an insect.

He was, however, able to turn his whole skin into crab carapace, covering most of his body with a thick plates of armor, albeit not as cool-looking as a beetle's, not to mention too heavy to move in.

He ended up picking up multiple natural philosophy books from the library to test the 'knowing anatomy' aspect of his powers. The books were severely outdated, only having information on the simplest and most common creatures found on the East Blue. But he wasn't deterred.

He was currently reading up on the Atlas Beetle under a tree and trying to summon its shell.

"Damn, it's hard to visualize without pictures," he muttered, closing his eyes and trying to imagine a cross section of the beetle, only to have his vision return suddenly. "Wha-"

His eyelids were gone, his whole eye structure was changed into an insect's, compound and unblinking.

He was having trouble adjusting to how unique the sensation was; it was hard to come to terms with his new field of view and the new weight on his neck from the new horn atop his head. His hands, he noticed as he pulled them up, looked jointed like a bugs', covered in black chitin that shined in a blue hue.

He blinked, or rather, attempted to blink and failed, as he didn't have eyelids anymore.

"Awesome!" he screamed jumping up, only to hit a branch of the tree he was reading under and falling onto his pile of books, knocking one of them open.

"I guess the beetle's muscle power is scaled up to my size," he muttered, rubbing his horn as he sat back up. then did a once over of himself, trying to see if there was any nicks on the exoskeleton that covered his body. And, to his great pleasure he found out that the armor that covered him had sustained none. _Probably could shrug off one of Gramp's punches now..._

He grumbled, getting up as the armor faded away, eyes catching a weird name in the open book.

"Mantis Shrimp?"

* * *

Higuma was having a bad day. As it turned out, there was a sake outage all around the East Blue because a pirate crew was consuming it all.

"Damn pirates," he spat out as he kicked down the door to the bar in Foosha again.

"Oi wench, me and my boys are quite parched," he had a sleazy look at his face, "please give us some sake or we will make sure to entertain ourselves with something," he licked his lips, "or _someone _else"

"Didn't you hear about the sake shortage?" asked a kid at the who was currently stuffing his face. "Also, I am pretty sure the STD you have is terminal, make sure to get that checked out before making moves on anyone."

Once again, the bar was silent. Makino was slightly worried about what Luffy had gotten himself into, but that worry dried up when she saw the wide shit-eating grin that he had stretched on his face.

"You brat!" Higuma screeched drawing a sword and stopping it in front of Luffy's neck.

"Oh_ no, _call the navy. Did I hurt your feelings?" Luffy asked with a tone so unimpressed that it would have made Shanks proud.

Higuma was practically steaming with anger "I'll kill you!" he screeched and thrust the sword only to stumble forward onto Luffy as it snapped at the hilt, the blade clattering to the floor harmlessly.

Before he realized what was going on he heard the boy whisper something softly.

"Ever been punched by a shrimp before?"

Higuma felt his blood go cold. It was something primal within him- this kid was far from normal.

His train of thought was derailed as he felt something round impact his stomach with speeds he couldn't even comprehend, the force almost dislocating some of his vertebra. He only got to see the arm of the kid for a fraction of a second as he flew back into the wall.

The boy's arm was green, and was bending the wrong way, the tip was bulbous like a boxer's glove and colored bright red.

Higuma's vision went black as he spewed blood from his mouth, the internal damage causing him unbearable pain. He was unconscious by the time he collided with his men

The few of the bandits that were still conscious after the impact heard the kid giggle. "I told you it was strong as a pistol!" and they too succumbed to the dark.

* * *

"LUFFY! WE HEARD YOU HAD SOME TROU-" the Red Hair crew bellowed, Shanks kicking the door open and freezing at the sight of Luffy tying up the bandit crew with some white silk. The captain's sudden stop caused the rest of his crew to collide with his back, sending all of them sprawling to the ground.

"Oh, hey guys, how was the sake?" Luffy asked nonchalantly. He finished tying up the knocked-out bandits with the silk he had created from his fingertips; he knew learning the anatomy of spinnerets would come in handy.

Letting the tips of his fingers return to their original structure, he waved at the Red Hair crew, who were slowly getting up from the ground. "Luffy... HOW THE _ACTUAL _FUCK?!" Shanks yelled as Roo got off him

Luffy shrugged. "I just punched him."

_OK- _Shanks did not have enough alcohol in his bloodstream to deal with this. A seven-year-old defeating a bandit with an 8,000,000 beri bounty! Not unheard of, but in East blue out of all places? Inconceivable.

"Yeah guys, I think," Shanks got up from the floor, "I think I need more booze, something strong, we'll be returning to the Grand Line" He was not ready for this. What's next? Was Luffy gonna start blasting waves of conqueror's haki?

"Do you think I can get the bounty off this guy?" Luffy asked Makino, who was giggling as the Red Hair crew that stumbled out of the bar.

* * *

Luffy ran to the bay to catch up to the pirates who were packing up to leave for the Grand Line again. "Oi, Shanks!" Luffy yelled, breaking the unusual silence of the normally rowdy Crew.

"Ah Luffy," Shanks said from the sidelines, walking up to the child. "Here to see us off?" he said as he ruffled his spiky hair

"Yeah..." Luffy muttered, looking down on the floor; he couldn't help but feel responsible for the crew's departure.

His thoughts were stopped when he felt a straw hat drop onto his head. Luffy looked up to a kneeling and grinning Shanks. "Don't worry, we're leaving mostly cause we stuck around here too long; wouldn't want the Marines to freak out and send out a buster call, now would we?" He stood up to his full height.

"A buster ca-" Luffy managed to whisper before Shanks continued with a dreamy look on his face.

"You remind me a lot of how I was, Anchor; sometimes even how my old captain was" he grinned cheekily, looking back at him. "So, wanna come along?"

It took Luffy a few seconds to start breathing again. _Is he serious? Is he finally offering a spot on his ship?_

_No._

Luffy _did _want to go on adventures, and the books he read during the time the Red Hair crew was gone had only caused him to be even more excited him more at the prospect. For once in his life, he had some sense of how big the world was... and even if he had wanted to experience it with Shanks it felt…

He didn't want to be under anyone's command.

"No," he muttered weakly, but eyes resolute even with the unshed tears. "I'm gonna have my _own _adventure," he continued, rubbing his tears away with his forearm. "I'm gonna surpass you." He looked up with a steel gaze to Shanks who was grinning down at him. "I AM GOING TO BE THE KING OF PIRATES!" he bellowed, the sound echoing throughout the town.

Mayor Woop Slap shivered somewhere in his home.

Shank's grin spread further, and was joined by some of his crew's own smiles.. "You're gonna be better than us, eh?" he teased, pushing the hat down on Luffy so it covered his eyes. "Well then, keep this hat safe for me".

There as a sniffle from Luffy

"It's my greatest treasure."

With that, the crew started to board their ship, Shanks following suit. He gazed fondly at the open seas.

"SHANKS!" The captain turned his gaze back to the kid he had high hopes for. "I'LL RETURN THIS WHEN WE MEET AT THE TOP!"

Grinning like his late captain Shanks yelled back "I'LL BE COUNTING ON IT, LUFFY!"

* * *

**and before you ask- No I didn't know about Sun eater's quirk before I wrote this whole mess- weird how it popped up on BNHA a year later.**

**That being said- see you on the next one(?)**

**Also, the discord link to my server if you wanna scream at me there: 5pjUyUt**

**just add the discord gg and slash to the start and you are golden**


	2. The Bug and The Wimp

**_The smasher type mantis shrimp, even with its small stature, possesses one of the fastest and heaviest strikes on the planet. Its unique muscle and carapace structure let it move the bulbous tip of its raptorial appendage with forces comparable to a .22 Caliber bullet. The punch reaching speeds of 85 kilometers per hour even as it moves through water. Even more awe-inspiring the speed of the punch is fast enough to boil the water around it, forming bubbles- this process is called cavitation. The 'bubbles' produced by cavitation are deadly underwater, capable of destroying crab shells easily._**

**_Nothing to scoff at._**

**_Of course, this was a punch from a 10cm shrimp; the forces would increase drastically if the anatomy was scaled up onto the size of a human being._**

* * *

Ten years had passed since that fateful day at Makino's Bar. Finally, on his 18th birthday, Luffy set off, laughing and waving goodbye to the village that had been his home for most of his life.

The call of the sea had been too strong for him to remain there, locked on the land. Now he had given in to the urge to set sail on the Great Blue.

He couldn't help but laugh his distinctive 'shihihihi' laugh as he started rowing out farther into the ocean.

A large shadow dashed under the water, causing his boat to stir lightly as his instincts flared to life, brain clicking away from the pure euphoria of his first taste of freedom.

The guardian of the coast rose from the ocean behind him, the eel-like Sea King's large predatory eyes locking onto the little morsel of meat Luffy was to the gargantuan creature.

The marvel of nature didn't impress Luffy and he got up standing on the rowboat. "Oi overgrown guppy, what do you think you are doing?"

As the words left Luffy's mouth the Sea King burst towards him.

* * *

The sensation of altering anatomy was a weird feeling. It wasn't painful or anything, just slightly unnerving. For a few milliseconds, the limb would go numb, like it had fallen asleep. The neurons and muscles breaking apart and reforming over and over again as the desired body part changed under his will.

In this case, his fist got covered up with thick red carapace, the exoskeleton spread up to his shoulder and he lifted his arm up. The joints inside restructuring as his forearm snapped under his armpit and locked in place with a latch-like mechanism. The new large muscle in his morphed upper arm started to contract, like a crossbow pulling back; armed and ready to fire.

Before the giant fish knew what happened, Luffy was airborne, just above its nose. "SHRIMP PISTOL!"

The trigger in his arm released his club-shaped fist. The blunt red appendage slammed against the giant eel, breaking the sound barrier as it did so. There was a sickening crunch as the beast's nose collapsed and stabbed its brain which started rattling around as the punch that rivaled the shot from a sniper rifle sent its massive body drifting back with massive force, the sonic boom damaging its ears too as it started to sink down

The force of the punch propelled Luffy back onto the dingy, sticking his landing as the boat floated away with the return of its resident.

"Bitch ass fish," he muttered starting to row again.

* * *

"Okay this-" he eyed the whirlpool his dingy was getting dragged into, "is a predicament."

He had closed his eyes for 5 minutes to rest for a while and that had seemed to cost him his adventure already. _Fuck it I'm never sleeping again _. He could probably copy a dolphin's brain or something and get away with that.

He broke out of his thoughts to pay attention to the problem he needed to fix_ right _now.

He eyed the water spiraling down into the depths, his boat was now in the event horizon of the whole thing and he couldn't see a way out of it.

Well, there was one obvious one, but he couldn't do _that._

Even when copying other animals, he couldn't get enough lifting power to get airborne, the wing muscles he could generate were simply not strong enough.

Stupid aerodynamics and gravity; he _needed _to fly to get away from this bullshit and they were working against him. Unless-

He caught the sight of the barrel he had with him. _that works… _and jumped in. his fingertips went numb over, and turned into spinnerets. He let silk fly, layering coat after coat of the fluid to get the barrel as watertight as it could get.

_That should do it. _he huffed, patting the walls down to check for any more holes. Finding none he struggled to get into a comfy position in the barrel and let his metabolism slow down to a crawl.

He had spent too much energy just making the barrel watertight, and if anything went wrong he had a real chance of starving to death.

Not the best way to go.

He closed his eyes, letting his body hibernate

* * *

The sound of a hook splashing onto the water muffled the gentle lappings of the sea against the side of the cruiser, which was currently carrying a high-end party for some of the better off people of East blue.

"Oh my god Fred you suck at this," teased the other crewman, bumping his shoulder against his rotund friend

Fred bit back a laugh. "Shut up dude." he shoved his friend away playfully "I'm just a lil' rusty that's all."

He threw the hook again, this time crashing into the barrel and digging into it. "See?" he said bubbling with pride as he started to pull up the- rather heavy- barrel up. _Jesus- it's heavier than it looks._

"What's wrong? Need a little help big guy?" his friend asked with a smirk and grabbing ahold of the rope too, getting the barrel finally up the side of the cruiser. Panting slightly both looked at the barrel- "PIRATES OFF THE STARBOARD STERN!"

Both officers looked at each other for a second before the boat was rocked by cannon fire, causing them to run to their stations as the barrel rolled down onto the hold of the ship.

* * *

A smaller, pink pirate ship, approached the bigger cruiser its jolly-roger waving almost menacingly through the air as it caught up to the other bigger vessel, its job made easier as one of its many cannons shot down one of its preys many masts, crippling it.

"Oi you bastards," a deep voice bellowed, "who is the most beautiful woman of the sea?"

"ALVIDA!" the group of pirates and a small boy with pink hair chanted, fear in all their voices.

"DAMN RIGHT!" the voice confirmed as her ship pulled next to the larger vessel.

"Take them for everything they got," the voice rumbled as the crew roared with bloodthirsty glee, starting their attack on the civilian ship.

The pinkette boy didn't partake in such savagery.

Instead, he was kicked on to the cruiser.

* * *

_This is gonna be a good day_

Nami pulled off her disguise in one fluid motion, the striped dress replaced by a blue shirt with loose black pants, a black bandana secured over her orange hair and the transformation was complete. She looked at the pink ship hungrily.

_This is gonna be a good haul~_

* * *

The attack went smoothly, smoother than any Alvida had done so far.

Her name was now getting infamous, and that alone was deterring any of the civilians to act out, making it easy to cough up all they had at sword point.

She smiled watching the treasure chests she brought over start to fill with valuables.

* * *

As the pirates did their pillaging, Nami snuck on board to the pirate ship.

With all parties involved concentrated in the main hall it was easy to sneak into the ships treasury un-

"Who the hell are you?" Nami almost jumped out of her skin as a pirate opened the door behind her, all these years and hearing a pirate talk behind her was making her jumpy.

"New recruit!" She chirped turning around with her most disarming smile, "Alvida told me to bring more chests from the treasury"

"New recruit? I wasn't informed of any…" The pirate blinked, just noticing her gender, Nami assumed. "You are quite the pretty thing aren-"

_Not dealing with this._

Her foot met his groin in a blink and she felt something pop, the man doubling over and starting to dry-heave from the pain.

_That settles that. _She smiled, going back to her mission.

* * *

Coby avoided the main fight as always.

This was only the second interaction he was in last time it was okay for him to sneak away.

He hoped this would also be okay as he snuck into the kitchen without arousing any suspicion from his fellow pirates.

He eyed a big barrel that looked like it had crashed into the kitchen rather than placed in.

"Booze?" he questioned as he looked onto the large barrel, starting to push it towards the door he came in from.

If its weight was anything to go by, it was something valuable.

_If I bring this in would Alvida leave me alone?_

Suddenly a foot stopped the barrel, and his eyes snapped up to the blockade stopping him from rolling.

"What are you doing, runt?" grunted one of the bulkier members of the crew, Coby was always surprised how the giant of a man talked so coherently even with his massive underbite. "Hiding again?"

There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"N-no just rolling this barrel of booze over for y-you guys," Coby whimpered shaking his hands up in the air.

"Is that so…?" the pirate looked at the barrel, two others joining him. "Let's help you with that then-" he said quietly picking up a side of the barrel.

"-by lightening it" he cheered flipping the side up, making the barrel stand.

"I was getting thirsty any-"

"W-we cant the captain would kill us," Coby cut off the other pirate, blabbering with full fright on what Alvida would do to him.

* * *

A black eye opened in the barrel glowing slightly red with bioluminescence.

* * *

"The captain _won't _know if we _don't _tell," said the pirate pulling his fist back much to Coby's dismay

"Now to open it," he bellowed his fist flying forward.

Before his fist made contact the lid of the barrel slammed against his face, shot off the barrel like a cannonball.

"That was faster than I thought" Luffy mumbled shaking off his cobwebs that were still clinging onto him, the faint glow in his eye fading.

Coby looked at the jack-in-the barrel standing between him and his crew, as he slowly got out of the barrel. His knee-high boots- _no leather doesn't look like that- armor _? Clicking against the wood after the next.

The boy started doing some stretches whining about 'hibernating in a weird position' and dusting off his red cardigan and shorts after he was done, pulling on the straw hat that was hanging off his neck onto his head covering his messy black locks of hair.

Neither Coby nor the other pirates were out of their stupor when the boy skimmed over the two conscious pirates before his eyes were locked on Coby.

He had trouble keeping his bowels in place.

"Oi kid do you know where the pantry is I am famish-" he paused, eyes trailing off to glare at the sword pointed at his neck eyes following the sharpened metal down to glare at the owner, one of the friends of the unconscious pirate.

"Gimmie a second," he said turning fully to the owner of the sword.

"Hello there! Monkey D. Luffy here how may I help you" he said good-naturedly.

"Oi kid are you fucking with u- " his grip on the sword tightened when he noticed that Luffy wasn't paying attention.

"Shouldn't you pick him up, He'll catch a cold sleeping there."

"YOU ARE THE ONE THAT PUT HIM THERE!" he screamed, lunging forward with his friend at his side. "DON'T MESS WITH US WE ARE PI-" all the fire in him was snuffed when he heard pieces of his sword clatter to the ground.

He could have sworn he had seen large crab claws for a second there

"Was I?" Luffy asked scratching the back of his head and looking at the ceiling.

"Nah, I don't remember beating up anyone yet, wait he wouldn't be related to a Sea King would he?" he looked down, mouth forming into a small smirk as the pirates he had disarmed, ran out of the room dragging along their fallen comrade.

His stomach grumbled.

"Man, I am hungry"

"R-run quickly before they call their friends" whimpered Coby trying to 'save' the boy.

"Hm?" Luffy looked back at Coby who looked like he was about to faint out of fear. "Do they have a Marine armada or something?" Luffy asked arching one eyebrow.

"N-no" Coby whispered shaking his head.

"Well then I should be fine," Luffy put bluntly, shrugging. "Now about that pantry."

* * *

Coby was completely locked down. This man; who just popped out of a barrel, the action alone knocking one person out, had broken the swords and probably caused a mess in the pants of two pirates, had dragged him around the boat, somehow sniffing out the location of the pantry of the ship like a bloodhound.

And now was inhaling apple after apple.

_I must be dreaming… no way today is real..._

He was literally knocked out of his thoughts when an apple impacted lightly against his chest and onto his hand.

"Oi kid try some these are good," the barrel man said before continuing to inhale the apples again.

"My name is Coby," said the pinkette dumbly, introducing himself as he took a bite out of the apple.

Luffy looked back to the small kid opening up to him, his mouth spreading apart in a soft grin involuntarily. The kid seemed to be kind, even if he was a wimp.

"Oi Coby," Luffy said bringing the pink haired kids attention back to himself, "those guys _called _themselves pirates".

He had eaten octopi with more backbone than those jokers.

"So, is this a pirate ship?"

Coby shook his head, and swallowed the bite he had taken. "No, this is a passenger ship that the pirates are raiding," he said, holding the apple core, Luffy was right these were good.

"Is that so?" Luffy murmured returning to the apples and taking one more out of the box. he started to think, tossing the apple up and grabbing it as one would do to a ball.

_Should I take care of this mess and hope the crew of this passenger ship be kind enough to give me a boat?_

_But… before that… _

"Hey Coby," he looked at the boy still tossing the apple, "you wouldn't be a part of this pirate crew, would you?"

Coby froze up shivering like he was reliving something either very stupid or very traumatic, probably both.

"Y-yeah it happened 2 years ago," he started almost tearing up, "I got onto this dingy thinking it was a fishing boat- only to find out it was a landing ship of a pirate crew." he clasped his hands tightly.

"And you were their cabin boy ever since?" Luffy finished earning a nod from Coby.

He huffed to the side _he needs to grow a backbone…_

"Why don't you just run away?" Luffy asked, already suspecting the answer.

"I-I cant the thought of getting caught is enough to get my knees to lock up"

_There it is _Luffy sighed. "God, you are such a coward."

Coby flinched at the remark before settling down again, it was true after all. Though the though words made him finally relax a little.

"Hey, Luffy, what were you doing in that barrel?" Luffy's face froze over and a single drop of cold sweat dripped from his temple. "Well, you see..."

* * *

The pirate crew finally started to ferry the, now full, treasure chests down to their own ship tossed into the hold with no further thought.

Days like these were what Nami lived for, treasure delivered right to her lap. She giggled, emptying out the chests with fast hands, her own canvas bags filling up with loot rapidly.

She flinched for a second as screams of a monster echoed out from the cruiser, followed by metal crashing against bone.

_Wonder what's that about..._

* * *

"So you climbed in a barrel-"

Luffy nodded.

"-to survive the whirlpool…" Coby muttered, voice still slightly wary due to the sheer insanity of the concept.

"Hey, I never said I thought it was a _good _idea," Luffy said defensively, "It was the only option I had at the time".

Coby's shoulders sagged. "Maybe if I was brave enough to sail in a barrel I would have been out of here ages ago," he said wistfully, getting a dreamy look on his face.

"Luffy why were you out at sea?" Coby mumbled, looking back at the man who seemed to be doing a once over of his hat.

"Ah, that's easy," Luffy said putting his hat back on, "I am gonna be the king of pirates."

Silence followed his remark _That's a new one..._

Luffy looked over to Coby who was silent, too silent. _Did his heart beat stop _? he wondered waving his hand in front of the motionless child.

Coby's stalling brain restarted at the sudden stimuli.

"You mean the man with the most wealth fame and fortune- "

Luffy nodded.

"The man who owns the greatest treasure, One Piece?" Coby asked as if he was talking to a madman.

"The one and only," Luffy said with a grin, nonplussed about his tone of voice.

"Impossible!"

Luffy's face soured.

"In this age of piracy with pirates all over the world looking for it!?"

"Yeah, well so am I-"

Coby didn't seem to listen to him and started to chant 'Impossible' repeatedly. "No way you can stand on the apex of this er-" he yelped as a shock slammed against his forehead causing him to take a few steps back.

_Electric eel… _Luffy grinned and blew on his finger _Useful as always- good thing I can control the voltage better now._

Coby's forehead started smoking.

Luffy's smile twitched. _ kinda at least..._

"Why did you do that?" Coby whimpered, rubbing his forehead.

"Cause you were going catatonic" Luffy shrugged. melting against the wall, his hat covering his eyes.

"It's not about if I can or if I can't, I _am _gonna do it cause I want to," he pulled the hat off looking at the inside.

"And if I die trying?" A smile widened on his face. "Well that's fine with me." He placed his hat back on and started to walk away.

"Welp, I'm full, time to kick some ass," he stated only to stop at his tracks when he heard Coby mumble something.

"Do you think I can join the marines if I put my life on the line?" asked Coby again glaring at the floor.

"Marines?"

"It's my dream to catch bad guys-'' Coby said tears falling from his eyes, "ever since I was a little kid."

"Wait, little kid? How old _are _you?"

Coby ignored the question, or didn't even hear it. "Do you think I can really do it?" He asked again, looking Luffy in the eye for any kind of confirmation.

Luffy smiled softly, looking away in a teasing tone. "How would I know?"

Coby either picked up what he was going for or just didn't care anymore.

Either way the correct answer in Luffy's eyes.

"I'll do it, I'll break out of here join the marines and catch people like Al-" the ceiling crumbled and a huge figure crashed down kicking up dust in its wake.

"**CATCH WHO?**" Alvida growled, in her full morbidly obese glory as the dust settled.

Coby had assumed the position on her side, somehow dodging the goliath of a woman.

"COBY" She screamed with a voice that was way too deep for anyone human "Who is the most beautiful woman on the seas?" Coby started to answer "I-its y-"

"OK WHAT!?" Luffy screamed, getting both to focus onto him.

After the initial outburst, he had rubbed his eyes, looking at Alvida like she was some sort of great mystery of biology.

Honestly, she was loving the attention, her cheeks filling with color.

"How are you even walking?" Luffy asked somehow making the question not sound like that much of an insult "I am not even asking about the Fall you just took- how did your legs even handle that amount of weight?"

That was the tipping point for her.

"Are you calling me fat punk?" Alvida hissed back, anger brimming in her eyes.

"Uh- I mean" Luffy stumbled around his words-

Makino had been clear about making women mad. And how he should NEVER do that.

He still had the nightmares.

Alvida seemed to be a woman.

_I mean… maybe?_

_Better safe than sorry._

"No, no just. Big boned?" Luffy asked trying to weasel himself out of the situation.

Alvida didn't lose the fire of pure rage in her eyes.

All of the pirates hearing the conversation was frozen in place, Coby included.

They all watched Alvida's mace rise above her head.

_Well… failed step one _Luffy huffed.

"YOU BRAT!"

He jumped away as Alvida swung it down almost breaking through the floor of the ship.

"Oi Coby we are leaving," he stammered as he landed next to the kid, grabbing his arm and jumping out the hole in the ceiling and landed in front of the pirates on the upper deck.

Letting Coby go he dodged a swing from a pirates' sword.

He breathed out, _men _he can deal with.

His body convulsed slightly, the almost invisible hairs on his body stood on their ends stiffly, the sudden change letting him feel even the slightest of air currents.

A small trick to dodge attacks more easily.

He was forced to jump back as six pirates attacked with a downward slash at the same time and skid to a stop next to the mast, cracking his knuckles, causing them all to break out in a cold sweat.

A pirate jumped down from the mast and slashed the man from behind.

Only to not hit resistance against his blade.

Luffy finished his pivot by the time the pirate was questioning reality, grabbed the back of his head, grinning slightly. "No fair attacking from behind, eh?" he chirped giddily as he slammed the guy's head down.

Pulled him back up.

And chucked the unconscious body to the six pirates that attacked him; knocking them out too.

"Haven't lost my touch," he smiled at his accomplishment.

He flinched. "Ok not dealing with that" he announced as thirty people tried to attack him from behind.

"Body of Atlas."

In a matter of seconds; his skin started to turn iridescent black, turning into thick layers of chitin. A horn protruded off of his forehead knocking his straw-hat back, resting on his back by its string around his neck. His eyelids melted away into his face as it

turned black and angular, his eyes turning pitch black, scar bleaching to a paper white under his now compound eye.

His mouth was covered up by a pair of plate-like mandibles as his neck and arms got slightly thicker. The greaves he wore extended up, the panels of the armor continued to rise until they disappeared underneath his shorts to an unknown fate.

The group hadn't had time to react to the transformation before the lead slashed at him with their swords.

"That's not gonna work," Luffy laughed underneath the mandibles as the swords didn't even leave a mark against his new skin.

The pirates looked into the unblinking eyes of Luffy in a moment of pure fear.

Luffy arms turned green and snapped the wrong way.

"Shrimp pistol."

He released the latch prematurely, opting to go with one-fifth of the usual tension. _Wouldn't wanna turn them to paste._

Alvida was out of the hole she fell in from and managed to catch the image of two of her crew flying through the air and barreling onto the rest of her pirate crew knocking them out too.

His extended arms returned to their original black coloration as he dusted his hands off. "That takes care of that." His voice was deeper and muffled under the plating over his mouth, creating a menacing sight combined with his new form.

Coby and Alvida that were shocked dead silent.

Breaking out of his stupor Coby stumbled forward. "Luffy what even _are _you?" he asked still not believing what he was seeing.

Luffy looked back, well Coby thought he did, it was hard to know where he was looking while his eyes were compounded.

"Oh I am a devil fruit eater," he said like it was the most normal thing, "I can change my anatomy as I please now." Coby's Jaw dropped so far that Luffy was sure it was dislocated.

"So, they really do exist," Alvida said, causing Coby to scramble behind Luffy hiding behind the, now imposing, man.

"You seem skilled, a bounty hunter perhaps?" Alvida asked with an unusual calm in her voice.

"Nah, I am a pirate."

"Is that so..." Alvida said grip tightening around her mace. "That makes us enemies, doesn't it?"

Even in this insectoid form, Luffy looked like he was scrunching his nose. "I guess, though isn't that a little trigger happy?"

Alvida's grip relaxed a little, she wasn't gonna attack a man that could use two other men as cannonballs to take out a crew of thirty; she was overweight, not an idiot.

"Luffy run! you saw how powerful her club is," Coby whimpered.

Luffy looked at him while putting his hat back on, somehow managing to push it on even with his horn pushing against the straw rim

"In these waters… she is the most-" he stopped remembering the short time he had with Luffy filling him with courage.

"Most what?" Alvida asked smirking.

"Most UGLY OLD HAG ON THESE WATERS!"

Alvida gritted her teeth, swinging her mace down at Coby aiming to smite the boy for his transgressions.

Coby had given into his fate as the mace began to fall down, crying softly that he was going to die even before attempting to reach his dream.

He waited for his end.

And waited.

The mace never hit him.

He cracked open one eye to see what was going on, greeted by the sight of Luffy holding the slab of steel up with ease.

"That wasn't nice" Luffy muttered looking down at the cowering boy.

"I mean she isn't my type either, but you just don't say that." He lifted his arm up causing Alvida to stumble back.

* * *

While the ruckus was going on, Nami managed to sneak out of the hold in Alvida's ship going to back to find a dingy to run away with undetected.

* * *

"I guess this makes us enemies eh?" Luffy asked calmly, even as Alvida got back up to attack again.

Dashing in a way he couldn't believe she was capable of.

"SHRIMP PISTOL!" he announced, arm already transformed, as the latch released again, striking Alvida straight in the gut, sending the woman flying away.

"…. Shit I think I overdid it-" Luffy crouched holding his head between his hands sounding more and more horrified by the second. "-If Makino hears about this she is gonna feed me my family jewels."

He was still scarred from how she taught him not to hurt women.

Garp's fist of love was nothing compared to _her._

* * *

In the 'New World,' Shanks shivered a feeling of nostalgia and fear suddenly coursing through him.

* * *

Luffy jerked up from his fear-induced catatonia as he heard cannon fire

"Oh god."

The waters near the cruiser exploded as the cannon fire hit around the ship.

"OH GOD SHE IS HERE!" He screamed, fearing for his life, Instinctively grabbing Coby under his arm and Running around the side of the ship. Trying to find a liferaft to escape from, what he thought was, the wrath of Makino.

_JACKPOT!_

He didn't think twice before jumping off the cruise ship onto the small raft already in the water, the wood of the boat groaning under the sudden impact. In addition of causing the current owner, an orange-haired beauty to recoil reflexively.

Almost falling out of the boat.

Dropping Coby inside the dingy he grabbed the falling woman before she hit the waters and pulled her back, into the dingy and onto his chest as he crashed back onto the wood himself.

* * *

Nami opened her eyes when she felt the soft sensation of silk against her cheek rather than the choppy waves of the sea she had expected.

She slowly looked at where her head had ended up in, a chest covered in a red, silk cardigan, following the weird black neck up to where she thought the head would be.

she was greeted by the unblinking eyes of Luffy, looking more like a giant bug monster than a human being.

She had dealt with Fishman before, so inhuman eyes were not that out of the norm for her. She knew she should've been at least scared looking up at the compound eyes, but…

They looked too kind and caring to incite such a response.

"Wh-what are you?"

"Doyouknowhowtosail!?" the beast screeched in a high pitched voice, almost like a scared kid rather than a human-sized bug; shaking the navigator by her shoulders slightly as he did so.

"Wegottagetoutofhere!" he added, managing to breathe and get his voice to stop shaking ever so slightly.

Before Nami could answer, he pushed her down to the floor getting back up to look at the cannonball sailing right at them.

He raised his right arm, his leg pushing back at the moment the cannonball hit his hand, his feet dragging across the boat slightly as he fought against the momentum of the sphere of steel.

The boat drifted forward as what momentum he couldn't cancel moved down into it.

"Settingsailnow," Nami stammered, looking at the bug-man? That had effectively grabbed **_a_** **_fuckin cannonball_**_ out of the air_; unfurling the sail at a speed she didn't know she had, causing the ship to lurch forward.

* * *

When the small boat darted out from between the two larger boats Luffy saw that it was the marines he started to calm down.

It wasn't Makino.

He was safe.

"Ok, Luffy, it's just Marines-' he breathed in slowly trying to calm his nerves. "Not _her, _" he said shivering once more.

He tossed the cannonball up and down considering for a second before he gripped into the ball.

His free hand raised up, acting like a reticle as he aimed with his open palm targeting the nearest marine ship and flung the cannonball he had caught.

It looked like he had tossed it short as it fell towards the water only for it skip off the surface of the waves like a thrown pebble, hitting the side of the marine ship, damaging the lower levels enough that the cannons on that side were inoperable.

"Just the marines," he repeated. looking over at the shocked still Nami, and Knocked out Coby.

"**WHAT THE ****_FUCK_ ****ARE YOU?!**"


	3. Demon on the cross

The ocean looked like an eternal pool of obsidian, reflecting the purples and whites of the night sky; displaying the wondrous beauty of the heavens as the life raft continued its slow journey to its destination, a sight only viewable out on the ocean. Nami took a calming breath, the scent of salt invading her senses along with the chilly night air.

Her eyes drifted from the display that was the calm ocean under the starry night sky to look at the two that had jumped aboard at the last possible second.

The small pink haired boy had woken up screaming a few hours back, scared out of his mind after his short bout of unconsciousness, only able to finally calm down when he saw Luffy. She shuddered slightly, remembering how he had transformed back to a human form, skin slowly growing back over the chitinous plating, all of his armored shell except for his armored greaves melting away as the Marine battleships disappeared over the horizon.

She huffed gently, still blown away by the visual. _Guess that's just what a devil fruit can do… Enabling a _human _to catch a cannonball mid-flight… _It was… It was-

The next breath she took smelled like iron, gunpowder and the sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh.

She almost heaved at the visceral memory, body curling up reflexively, arms hugging her knees pulling them close. For a second she was eight again, alone in the worl-

Startled by a sudden grunt she fought to regain her composure, to get her mind away from the trauma she had survived. However, she started panicking again as Luffy grunted again rolling over.

She gasped, the ocean air filling her lungs again, pushing out the bad memories she had brought back to the surface of her mind. _Calm down, Calm down… you are almost free._

_He will be out of your life forever soon enough. Just- focus on something else. _

Her eyes landed on the man wearing the red cardigan. Usually, she would have tried to kick him off the boat. But to be honest she was slightly scared of him, or she had been at the beginning. She huffed, looking him over once more.

His inhuman appearance was scary enough as it was, with her previous encounters with Fishmen; she was half expecting him to start cackling about how the 'Bugmen' were the superior species of both human and Fishmen alike and demanded her to pay a fee for living.

Her grasp on her legs tightened at the thought.

But now she was relaxing, albeit slowly, looking at the peaceful face of her boat crasher. She could see his nose slightly flaring with each breath he took, a cute smile on his face.

_Wait cute?_

She shook her head trying to take the idea of waking up next to that smile out of her head. _I have to buy a village; not get roped into a crazy romance story _. _I don't have time for that!_

Her thoughts were stopped in their tracks when he grunted again, starting to shift in his sleep more and more.

That was a problem.

Their ship was small and anybody with his strength and weight rolling around restlessly would probably capsize it. Panicking, Nami attempted to shake him awake by the shoulders.

She almost fainted when his hands grabbed her wrists the moment he fingertips brushed against his shoulders; his eyes snapping open, glaring at her in a way that would have caused Arlong to flinch.

However, she saw a familiar glint in his eyes. It was the sad look someone who had lost somebody close to them.

She knew that look quite well, it was the one she got when she looked at the mirror no matter how much she tried to hide it under a fake smile.

The glare softened slowly along with his grip on her wrists as he got out of his daze waking up fully, the glint fading but not disappearing. His eyes finally lost all of their coldness, shifting from awe to hope and finally resolve.

_Wait what was that awe about?_

"Nami," Luffy breathed out breaking the hours upon hours of silence, rubbing his eyes. "Is it my turn now?"

Nami shook her head. "No I can keep up the whole shift, I'm not sleepy," she mumbled, falling back into her corner. "Only woke you up cause you looked like you were having a nightmare"

"Thanks," Luffy answered looking at the navigator, noticing she was shivering slightly. He started to unbutton his cardigan.

"W-Wait what are yo- "Nami was cut off as the silk piece of clothing was tossed on her head; causing a vein to pop on her forehead with anger. She ripped the piece of fabric off her head and glared at the boat crasher- only to blush heavily when she realized his state of undress and her eyes ventured down slightly.

He looked like a young god. He was all lean muscles and Nami could see them move ever so slightly underneath his skin. His arms looked strong but had a certain gentleness to them she couldn't quite explain. _`I bet it feels really nice when he holds you close with those arms… _ Her eyes followed the line of his collarbones, down his pectorals, seeing his chest rise and fall softly with every breath. Not that anything about him was soft. His abs looked like they were made of marble. She felt her own breath catch in her throat as her eyes dipped lower and lower, past his navel until… she stopped herself right there.

Truly a marvel in the East Blue.

"Nami you are drooling," Luffy laughed out silently, causing her blush to deepen.

"**Am not!**" Nami half whispered half screamed trying to will the impure thoughts out of her head, which only caused Luffy to laugh harder.

"You looked cold," Luffy said after he had calmed down again, interlocking his fingers behind his head and leaning back, relaxing in the boat.

The silence returned for a few seconds, the boat bobbing gently as it was pushed towards Shells town by the ocean current.

Without a word Nami wrapped the cardigan around herself surprised by how warm it was, sighing contently as her body heated up again.

"It's spider silk, " Luffy said, looking at the navigator that was snuggling up to it. Before she could throw it off he continued. "Think of it as the same stuff in normal silk clothing," he smirked a little, "but way better; tensile strength comparable to steel, elastic enough to stretch five times its own size…" he trailed off noticing that he had started to ramble.

"O…kay? But how did you get ahold of this much spider silk?" Nami mumbled, gently patting it. It was indeed very soft.

"Oh, I made it," Luffy remarked without missing a beat.

"I get that, you made the cardigan-" Nami asked getting more and more confused. "But where did you get the silk?"

"I made the silk," Luffy explained, nervously scratching the back of his head. "By turning my-" He was suddenly hit in the face by his cardigan, causing him to stop mid-sentence and looking at Nami quizzically. "Are you sure you don't want it?"

"**You can keep it," **Nami said in a voice that left no room for further argument.

* * *

They remained silent for the rest of the night as the sun slowly rose over the horizon. Instead, Luffy had pulled the cardigan over Coby, who had grown a content smile on his face as he did. He had managed to stay awake for a few hours longer asking Nami to sleep instead, who refused to respond, not even looking at his general direction. Finally, he gave up and went back to sleep.

When she heard his breath level out she let herself look back at the boat, eyes locking onto the rising and falling chest of Luffy.

"Idiot," she whined under her breath, a soft shade of pink on her cheeks.

* * *

Nami's eyes were bloodshot when they docked onto the marine island, the previous days' events and the sleepless nights were taking a toll on her.

Luffy had finally put his cardigan on again but hadn't buttoned it; loving the reactions he got from Nami. He was testing her patience. Savior or not, she was ready to punch his head clean off.

"Docking is 100 beri," droned the coast guard as the group of three got off the liferaft. Being tired as she was Nami reached down into her wallet prepared to pay the man without any bargaining.

"Here you go," said Luffy, paying the fee with some gold coins he apparently had in his shirt pocket. "Come on, Nami," he called out for her walking towards a bar named Foods Foo. "Let's have some breakfast."

The trio arrived at the slightly run down food joint and ordered their meal. It looked like it barely had any business going even as the seats were for the most part full, people staring at empty tables instead of ordering anything

_Economic trouble? _Luffy guessed taking a bite out of the pear he had pulled out of seemingly nowhere.

* * *

"Oh yeah, is this the base that got Zoro?" Luffy asked, even eating the core of the pear. All the heads turned to the group some people jumping back with fear.

Nami bumped her fist on his head. "_ Keep your voice down _!" she whisper-yelled at him. God, she needed some coffee.

Coby, missing the cue, added "Yeah, Captain Axe-Hand Morgan arrested him," causing most of the patrons to hit the deck or slam themselves to the walls trying to get away from the name itself.

Nami was too shocked to bonk Coby too.

_What the fuck was going on in this town?_

Luffy just raised an eyebrow and muttered "Interesting."

* * *

50 cups of coffee later...

* * *

"So Nami," Luffy broke the silence as they were walking out the bar, Luffy paying the tab, "where are you headed?"

Nami froze over as if she had just noticed that Luffy had been tagging along with her since the incident with the Marines.

Could she trust him? No, she didn't need any friends to trust, although he could be the muscle she needed to steal more treasure, and he seemed both reliable and kind…

"Oi, East Blue to Nami" Luffy said shaking his hand in front of her face trying to bring her out of her trance. "Me and Coby are going to the Marine base so the runt," he nodded towards Coby who was shivering slightly with excitement, "can join into the Marines and I want to check on this Zoro guy, he sounds awesome." Ignoring Coby's whining about how Zoro was a 'a demon in human form' he continued, "Wanna come along or meet up later?"

"Meet up?" Nami asked looking at Luffy as if he had grown a second head.

Luffy looked back like Nami had asked the stupidest question ever "You look like you have a goal," he started, his black eyes boring into her own like he could see into her soul through them, "and I want to help."

She blinked.

She blinked _again. _

"Excuse me?"

Luffy had been around dreamers all his life, their eyes had a sparkle to them; he had seen it in Shanks's and his crews' eyes, in his brothers' eyes too, and even his own when he looked at a mirror.

He had seen the sparkle in Coby's eyes when he met him, and during the night on the raft, he had seen it in Nami's eyes too. But hers looked wrong. Like she had given up on it long ago, or even hated herself for having it in the first place.

And he couldn't stand seeing that in her chocolate eyes. He wanted to help her, no matter how much of a detour it would cause him.

But truth be told he could feel it would somehow end up being about the Grandline.

Any dream big enough to cause that look usually had _something _to do with the Grandline.

"So, you are saying you want to help me?" Nami asked as the trio continued towards the base. She had agreed to come along. She needed to scout it anyway. "But why? You barely know me."

Luffy pouted teasingly. "I don't need to know someone to want to help them." He turned to her starting to walk backwards to keep up with the rest of them. "Like if you see a crying kid you wouldn't need to know their whole life story to help them, no?" he said sagely.

"I AM THE OLDER ONE HERE!" Nami yelled as she punched him in the head with a small blush.

He fell over onto his back. _Note to self, Nami hides embarrassment with violence _.

"Damn it, that hurts like a 'fist of love'," Luffy muttered, rubbing his forehead as the pain reminded him of the many punches Garp had given him. He was sure he would have minor brain damage were it not for his fruit.

_Thank you, passive regeneration._

"**Fist of what?**" Nami accused, her blush getting heavier.

Luffy swore he saw the visage of Makino behind her for a second.

And he was gone, running towards the Marine base, Nami hot on his tail fist ready to obliterate his face.

Coby barely kept up with the two screaming about how they shouldn't wreak havoc near the base.

By the time they arrived at the base, Nami was too tired to 'enact her revenge'; and had settled for flicking Luffy's forehead instead as she panted to get her breathing level again.

"Gotta-" she panted out as Coby caught up to them, "work…on…my….cardio," she grunted between breaths. Coby was much in the same condition, while Luffy was barely winded.

"In you go," he said slapping Coby's back, leading him to the doors of the base. The kid almost fell over but caught himself before he did so.

"Thanks, Luffy," he whimpered, happy tears in his eyes. He was taking steps closer to his dream.

Luffy just grinned widely showing his white teeth. "No problem, kid."

Nami had managed to catch her breath by this time and was watching the small conversation between the two with a small smile. Luffy _was _a good guy, this only cemented it. "See you Coby," she said looking at the kid.

Then she heard a noise to her left.

Her eyes twitched when she saw Luffy scaling up the wall and looking at the courtyard.

"_ What _are you doing?" she asked calmly, much like a volcano ready to erupt.

"I thought I smelled some booze," Luffy said, motioning with his hand for her to come along. "You won't believe what they have up here."

"I don't care," Nami shot sternly, getting visibly irked "Get down from there before anyone notices you!" she commanded.

Luffy turned around to look at her, both seemingly having forgotten Coby who still hadn't stepped through the gate. "Nami come on there is no one up there," he said looking back "Well except the man tied up to the cross."

Nami's stance faltered, body shivering as she remembered the smell of rotting flesh again. Her legs started to give out as she began to fall to her knees. However, she never reached the ground..

"You ok?" Luffy asked, his lean arms around her, holding her up. The worry in his voice pulled Nami out of her episode.

"Y-yeah, just fine," she mumbled, pushing Luffy away softly and taking a step when he loosened his grip, standing up again.

The moment was lost when Coby, who had climbed the wall like Luffy had called out "T-that bandana, that stomach warmer." Luffy looked back at the kid curiously, Nami calming down as she forced the memories down again. "T-that's Roronoa Zoro".

Luffy's eyes widened.

He had seen ropes around the body. They looked weak. If what he read about 'pirate hunter Zoro' was even half correct he should have been able to break through them with ease.

So, he was there cause he wanted to be there.

"Nami do you want to see too?" he asked emerging from his thoughts, looking at the orange haired woman next to him. Kneeling and cupping his hands together to form a step for her. "Y- Yeah, I suppose," she answered.

Taking his boost, she clung onto the wall, pulling herself up much like a cat and stared at the man tied to the cross on the field. "Is he even alive?" she asked, without even looking at the straw-hat clad man, who had climbed up next to her.

"He looks like he is starving and beaten, but alive," he answered, his eyes morphing to focus on the far away body of Zoro. Nami sighed a breath of relief and almost fell over when a ladder got propped up next to Coby. Luffy had a hand on her back, securing her in place.

A little girl climbed up the ladder, shushing the group. Satisfied when Coby stopped his whimpering, she checked to see if the area was clear and threw a rope down the other side of the wall, repelling down it.

Zoro groaned and looked up when he heard footsteps coming towards him thinking it was Helmeppo coming to gloat at him again.

He had never imagined narcissism was genetic, until the Morgans that is.

Getting ready to stare down the punk again, he straightened up and then relaxed again after his eyes focused. The figure approaching him was the girl he had saved.

He sighed, then looked straight into her small figure intimidatingly, trying to get frighten her enough to make her leave "Get lost kid," he mumbled. He didn't want her to get caught up in this mess along with him.

Undeterred the girl continued up to him, presenting a handkerchief with something in it to him. "I brought you some rice balls," she said unwrapping handkerchief to show him the food she had brought. He gulped, and his stomach whined.

The trio at the wall could hear Zoro's stomach grumbling when he saw the food, Coby had started to ramble about how dangerous this was only to be silenced by Nami bonking his head.

"I am not hungry," Zoro lied through his teeth, eyes darkening. "Leave me alone," he powered through as his stomach grumbled again. "B-but," Rika stammered getting cut off by Zoro again. "Leave before I kill you."

Coby was freaking out again, so was Nami slightly. Luffy, on the other hand was smiling. How couldn't they _hear _that Zoro would chop his own arm off before hurting that kid? It was evident in his voice.

"Don't bully kids Zoro," said a voice so full of himself that Luffy was reminded of the nobles of Goa.

Looking at the owner he witnessed the train wreck that was Lieutenant Morgan's son Helmeppo, flanked by two marine officers. Nami grimaced

"Purple,_ really? _"

She asked quietly referring to the suit he was wearing; Luffy almost died trying not to laugh at her comment.

Coby was going on about how the girl was saved now that the Marines were there.

"And the bastards son returns," Zoro said sarcastically, causing Helmeppo to grit his teeth "What, gonna punch me and whine about how your hand hurts again?"

Helmeppo's eye twitched, vid stomping over to him, screaming "DON'T GET COCKY! MY DAD IS THE MARINE LIEUTENANT!"

Before he could reach his tied-up prisoner, his attention was whisked away by the rice balls in Rika's "Ooooooooooh those look delectable," he said snobbishly, grabbing one out of the handkerchief Rika was holding.

"Stop it!" Rika yelped as he took it up to his mouth.

Luffy heard Nami whisper 'He wouldn't.'

The moment the rice-ball was consumed Helmeppo started gagging and spitting the chunk he had bitten.

Sputtering he looked at the girl accusingly "WHAT, DID YOU PUT SUGAR INSTEAD OF SALT?" he screamed as the taste faded; tossing the rice ball in his hand to the ground.

"I thought they would taste better if they were sweet," she said meekly looking down on the untouched rice ball. Helmeppo backhanded it off her hands and onto the ground.

Both Nami and Luffy's grip on the wall tightened, "H-how cruel," Coby muttered watching Helmeppo stomping on the fallen rice ball as Rika fell to her knees "Stop it, he can't eat it anymore," she begged.

Helmeppo's face contorted into a twisted smile as his foot continued to squish the rice on the dirt "Don't worry, the ants will eat them all".

"I-I tried really hard to make them," Rika said, tears starting to fall from her eyes, sniffling loudly.

Nami was ready to jump over the wall and break a few bones, only to be held back by Luffy's hand on her shoulder.

She looked at him accusingly, trying to find any reason he taught it was ok for him to stop her; that thought died in her mind when she saw his face.

His eyes were locked at the pompous bastard that was going about how 'anyone that helped a criminal got the same punishment' at the crying girl, his grip was white with power on the wall side, she swore she could hear the concrete starting to crack under the pressure.

"Toss her over the wall." That got Nami's attention crashing back to the blonde jackass, who was commanding the officers he had come with, who after getting threatened by him going on about his 'father will be hearing about this' walked up to the girl and picked her up.

"You gotta be fucking ki-"she stopped when the kid was tossed, sailing towards the wall.

Both young adults swung into action, Nami jumping up with grace like a cat where Luffy propelled himself horizontally, kicking away from the wall like a bullet and landing on the ground with a skid.

Nami caught Rika mid-air but the inertia of the young girl slamming against her forced her to fall backward onto Luffy who was planning to catch the falling pair before they could reach the ground.

"Oww," he whined under Nami, mostly jokingly. He was not prepared to have her fall on him too. "You two ok?"

"Y-yeah," Nami muttered looking over Rika, neither of them were really hurt, at most Nami was just a little shaken up due to the sudden motion. "You?" she asked turning around and Looking at the boy

...Beneath her….

She jumped up with Rika in her arms blushing furiously. Was that something hard in his pants she felt against her behind?

Ignoring the flustered Navigator, Luffy looked at the wall, hearing, which was easy as the guys were practically screaming, Helmeppo taunting Zoro about having to survive for the whole month.

His eyesight returned normal finally as he looked back at Nami. She had calmed down and was doing a once over of Rika with Coby. "Could you two take her away from here? I have something I need to do," he said plainly and, after getting a nod from Nami, he jumped over the wall.

* * *

Zoro looked up at the approaching figure, he had seen him and the orange haired girl jump to catch the girl with the corner of his eye. "What are you doing here?" he practically growled. "Leave now, or he'll call his dad."

Luffy didn't answer him for a while, doing a once over of him, his eyes locking onto his. He smirked.

"You have ambition," he stated, causing Zoro to falter. _What is this kid going on about?_

"Or should I say you have a dream?" Seeing Zoro flinch slightly, he knew he had hit the jackpot, the eyes of dreamers never lied. "Will you join me? I doubt you could achieve your dreams here."

Zoro spat at the ground "Sorry kid, find someone else to join you." He wasn't giving up getting out of this on his own strength. "I will survive here for the whole month." Luffy arched an eyebrow, but he didn't push it. Turning around he started to walk away.

"Hey, kid." he turned around and looked back at Zoro. "Can you pick that up for me?" he asked, looking at the rice ball stomped on the ground.

Luffy smiled widely.

* * *

"He told me to say, 'the rice ball was very good, thank you," Luffy said to Rika, who was sitting on a barrel in an alleyway, Nami and Coby on either side of her.

"I'm so happy!" she exclaimed smiling. Nami had a small smile on her face as well.

"Why was he tied up?" Coby asked, finally seeing that Zoro was at least decent guy.

"He killed Helmeppo's pet wolf when it tried to attack me," Rika said sadly, seemingly blaming herself over the incarceration of the swordsman.

"That guy had a pet wolf?" Nami asked.

"Had one that wasn't that well-trained one apparently," Luffy stated with a shrug.

Suddenly all the attention was pulled to the commotion at the main street

"All must bow before me!" Helmeppo bellowed. "All that don't will be reported to my dad."

"And executed just like Roronoa!" Suddenly the air pressure changed and Luffy was in front of Helmeppo staring him down, appearing out of nowhere

"You are gonna execute Roronoa Zoro?" he asked. "Didn't you say you were gonna give him a month to survive?"

"Who are you?" Helmeppo asked, not noticing the dark aura coming off Luffy that everyone else seemingly had noticed.

Much like a Dodo, he didn't fear predatory gazes; he had never been preyed on before, he simply didn't know the look.

"Doesn't matter," he said pompously with a wave of his hand "I was kidding with that 'one-month' bullshit," he stifled a giggle "Only an idiot would believe tha-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as he was punched onto the Marine guard he had behind him, colliding with them and knocking them onto their butts.

Two hands held onto Luffy pulling him back weakly. Luffy looked back and saw Coby holding him back. He sighed calming down a little and walked back to the alley. Both the marines bolting out of there with Helmeppo while he did so. Nami looked at him, curious but eyes full of approval.

"I hope that wasn't an issue Nami," he said sitting on a barrel himself.

"The only issue is that you only punched him once," she answered, earning a smirk from him.

"Mind If I recruit Zoro and kick this Morgan's ass?" he asked as Coby was freaking the fuck out in the background about making a villain out of marines.

"I don't mind about Zoro," Nami said truthfully, hearing about him eating that dirtball had shown his colors; much like Luffy, he was a good person. "And I was gonna ask you to do that anyway," she smirked.

Seeing corrupt Marines got on her nerves, it felt like a spit on what Belle-mere had stood for- not to mention his attack would be a great distraction for her to steal the map to the Grandline.

Luffy's hat covered his eyes as his smirk widened a bit.

_Oh _, he was gonna have _fun _today.

Then proceeded to laugh his ass off when Nami finally got pissed with Coby going on about how much of a bad idea this was and punched him in the face.

* * *

"Uh Luffy, By the way..." Nami said hesitantly as they were walking up to the base again, cheeks redder than usual. What was the correct way to ask about this? Was there a correct way?

"-Forget it," she mumbled as the boy looked at her.

"If you were still freaked out about _that _was, it was just the chitin plating covering up my - uh… 'vital parts'," Luffy mumbled, answering the unasked question.

Nami didn't know if that was more of an insult or a relief.


	4. Iron-Clad

Zoro slowly got up from his nap as he heard footsteps approaching him. _Single set, that means it's not Helmeppo _he thought bastard didn't have the guts to come alone.

Opening his eyes, he saw the red-vested kid from last time, and an orange haired girl? Wait, he only heard one set of footsteps… _how silent is her stride if even I couldn't detect it _?

"Who is the girl?" he spat out trying to act intimidating again. "Your lover?"

Luffy didn't visibly react as Nami blushed slightly at the images that flashed in her head. "God I wish," he chuckled softly. Even though Nami knew that was supposed to be humorous at most her blush deepened.

"I mean-" Luffy snapped out of his joking mood. "She is someone else I want to help with their dreams," he crossed his arms with a soft smile. "And we would like for you to join us."

Zoro was still not having it. "Get lost kid, I am not joining."

Nami just crossed her arms "Kid? You are barely two years older than him."

Zoro just glared at her in response.

"Well too bad, I decided that I want you in my small group, Pirate Hunter," Luffy said cutting off the little staring contest that was going on between Zoro and Nami.

"KID I SAID I REFU-"

Luffy ignored him completely, turning to Nami instead. "You said you were planning on stealing something here right?"

She nodded, ignoring the fuming man on the cross too.

"Steal his swords too, we can get him onto our side if we get them back and get him indebted to us" he said plainly.

"OI KID THAT'S BLACKMAIL!" Zoro screamed at the duo. Both Luffy and Nami looked at the tied up twenty-year-old and shrugged, then walked away.

* * *

They reached the side of the building. "So-" Nami looked back at her companion, "got a plan?"

Usually she would make one; but Luffy seemed smart enough, and she didn't know what he was _really _capable of, making formulating a plan hard.

Luffy shrugged "I mean, other than 'you take the bottom, I take the top' not really…" Nami's eyebrows twitched._ Is this guy joking or is he really this moronic? _

Luffy was sizing up the base, his irises cycled through a myriad of colors as his eyes focused on the windows and the top of the base, trying to figure out where it would be best to enter from.

_Roof should be fine..._

Funny thing about having a brain on overdrive, it didn't just boost logic and pattern recognition; it also boosted instincts.

He could tell the guys up there were small fries at most.

"Nami do you trust me?" he asked the woman who was having an internal debate on whether to leave the man right now. She was startled by the question, and lied without even blinking. "Yeah, I do."

Luffy smiled, her voice was deceptively sweet but her eyes were firm. She was telling the truth, even if she didn't know it.

"Well then-" he started, slowly dropping to the ground and holding his upper torso up by his hands, the armor around his feet pulsed and morphed around the full length of the limb, which seemingly gained a new joint near his hip.

Nami should have been scared, confused or even disgusted by the motions he was going through, but weirdly enough those too were growing on her.

He muttered 'froghopper' under his breath as the coloration of the chitin covering his limbs turned a pale brown.

He locked the new limbs up with an audible click, which surprised Nami, and clenched his new muscles slightly charging for the leap.

"Meet you in the middle" he announced and disappeared out of her sight, the soft thump of his feet hitting the ground came seconds after.

"Did-did he just break the sound barrier?" she asked looking at the slightly smoking dirt where Luffy had been standing.

* * *

Froghoppers are the best jumpers on the planet, beating out even fleas by jumping 10 times their own length. They achieve this feat thanks to the gear-like mechanisms on their legs. The locks and gears helping them achieve the angular geometry for the perfect jump, like a well-designed catapult.

Their feet hit the ground at 4 meters per second, which for their size is amazing considering that they are 6 millimeters in length.

On a human scale those legs could fire at mach 12.

'Could' being the operative word; at that speed, the limbs would achieve hypervelocity, a speed where even steel would liquify from the air resistance.

* * *

Luffy was cackling like a madman, his legs returning to their original form as he rapidly approached the top of the tower and almost over-shot it. Thankfully there was one eyesore of a statue hanging off the side of the ledge for him to latch onto. He was barely able to touch the damn thing, but it was enough to attach some silk onto the head of the monolithic slab of carved marble.

Then physics kicked in as the silk stopped stretching. Luffy's trajectory turned into a semi-circle, pulling the statue up with him as he landed on the top of the tower.

The Marines around him almost released the contents of their bowels, except for the guy with an axe for a hand going on about how 'great men did not make mistakes'. He seemed to have his head too far up his own ass to even _have _a functioning digestive tract.

"Hello?" Luffy said gazing upon the shivering bunch of marines, in a less exhilarated mood as the rush of the jump left him.

He knew that they would be weak but this was just sad.

* * *

Nami stood there shell-shocked for a while along with Zoro who had witnessed the jump from the courtyard. _I am not thinking about this right now _she told herself as she turned around and silently opened the window, climbing in with the grace of a cat.

Zoro stood there blinking a few times, even biting the inside of his cheek to check if he wasn't dreaming all of this.

* * *

Axe Hand Morgan was in awe; by all means he was _absolutely livid. _His idiot son who thought not getting hit by him made him special, and the captain that rejected his order of executing the damn little girl made sure of that; all of them treasonous imbeciles. But all that left him as he looked up at the statue of himself finally standing in front of him after all of these years.

The only reason he wasn't commanding his crew to slaughter the boy that had suddenly appeared in their midst was because he was too busy spilling tears at the sight of the glorious statue that now adorned the top of his marine base. "It- It's so beautiful!"

In fact he didn't even notice the kid coming up to him.

Luffy turned one of his fingers into a shrimp club. "Shrimp Bullet" he said and flicked the captain in the forehead.

The force of the flick was nowhere near the force of his full arm, but it was still comparable to a small caliber bullet; Morgan's head jerked back and he fell backwards onto the floor.

"Uh-huh..." Luffy mumbled over the knocked-out captain. He looked at the rest of the marines, which took a step backward.

"This-" he sighed. "This is a lot more anticlimactic than I thought it would be," he mumbled as he walked up to the doors to the base access, stopping for a second next to the unconscious Helmeppo and dragging him along. "He might be useful," he muttered to himself.

"Have fun out here," he said as he slammed the door shut behind himself and webbed up the doorframe. _That should hold them off for a while. _He started going down the stairs, dragging Helmeppo by his ankle, not caring that the kid was smashing his head with each step he went down.

"Wonder where Nami is right now..."

* * *

Nami was having a field day, the base was basically deserted. "Too bad there wasn't anything too valuable in here," she huffed while lugging a small canvas bag around, nearly nothing inside.

The only thing that was giving her trouble was the safe in Morgan's office, thick plated steel with 5 locking mechanisms, a tough beast to crack. "Where is Luffy when you need him, he could probably just bust through this," she muttered under her breath.

"Where am I indeed" Luffy said walking into the room and throwing Helmeppo onto his father's desk; Nami jumped at the sudden presence.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" she hissed clutching her chest, trying to calm down her rapidly beating heart. The irony of what the cat burglar said hit her a few seconds later, causing her to blush from embarrassment.

Luffy just chuckled. "I'll try not to do it again."

Nami was about to strangle the smartass, then she made the connection. "What happened to the marines, did you-"

Nami was cut off by Luffy. "I knocked out Morgan, then locked them out on the roof, we'll be alone for a while."

"Now let's see..." he couched in front of the safe stroking his chin slowly. "Looks like reinforced steel, should be able to punch through it-" he stopped for a second and let his fingers turn into clubs again.

"Nami, there could be shrapnel from this, stand back," he commanded, his tone enough to cause her legs to move on their own before she realized what she was doing.

"Shrimp" he clenched the new muscles in his forearm, prepping his fingers, "Gatling gun."

His fingers fired, one smashing against the hard steel as the others prepped. After 10 hits, the door of the safe was bent inward enough to compromise the locks. He used his untransformed arm to rip the crumpled metal off its hinges.

He turned his hand back, clenching and unclenching his fingers gingerly. "Goddamn recoil," he muttered under his breath.

Nami's eyes widened at what Luffy was capable of, and found herself giddy with the new possibilities this opened. She jumped on his back laughing like a child with a new toy, her breasts pushing against the young pirate's neck. "Luffy, you are amazing!" she exclaimed.

Luffy gulped at the contact on his neck, his brain going haywire. _Damn mating instincts, now isn't the time. _"It was nothing much," he muttered and let out a muted sigh when she got off him and started to scavenge the insides of the ruined metal cube.

"AHA!" she exclaimed as she pulled out a piece of paper.

Luffy, who had managed to calm down fully just tilted his head. "What's that supposed to be?"

Nami stuck her tongue out mischievously. "It's a map of the Grand Line, where I can steal even more treasures."

Luffy perked up. "Grand Line? You're going there too?"

Nami nodded and started to open the page up. "Seems like we are stuck toge-" her voice cut off when she saw that the page was not a map.

"Nami?" Luffy asked scooting closer to her to see what was wrong. She had slowly started to tremble.

"**What the fuck is this?!** " she hissed as she looked at the crude writing. " **Who the hell does this Buggy think he is?!**"

Luffy managed to get a look at the page, 'HAHAHa _the map to the Grand Line is mine -xoxo Buggy the Clown' ...seriously?_

"Buggy?" he huffed as Nami got closer to erupting with each passing second. She was almost physically steaming with anger.

"Luffy." She whispered turning around to face him. Luffy could swear that her eyes were glowing red. "When we find this 'Buggy'-" she inhaled, her hand was forming a fist. "I am going to make him regret every cell he has."

* * *

In Orange Town Buggy shuddered.

* * *

"Like the building blocks of life or the metal ba-" Luffy stopped his comment when he saw her glaring at him, face unimpressed and one eye glowing red with rage. "Blocks of life- got it," he quickly said raising his hands in defense.

* * *

The _'glorious' _statue of lieutenant Morgan softly crackled, alerting the marines that were still stuck on the roof. Their fearful gazes settled on the source of the sound and some of them fainted on the spot.

With a loud crack the statue started to buckle on its own weight and split in two at the torso.

The strain Luffy had put on it by pulling it up had finally taken its toll.

The upper part of the body fell forward, the head snapping off as it impacted the ground. It bounced on the floor getting even more damaged and then rolled against Morgan's leg nudging him slightly.

Morgan trembled a little as his consciousness came back to him slowly. It was a testament to his durability that he had survived, not to mention that he was conscious again so soon.

Maybe he was just that thick headed.

The corrupt lieutenant lazily looked at the thing that had nudged him. His platoon, or at least the ones still awake, took a step back.

* * *

"**THAT BASTARD!**"

The whole base shuddered, dust falling from the ceiling.

"Morgan is awake already?" Luffy muttered looking towards the roof.

Nami was shaken enough to calm down. "I thought you took care of him Luffy," she muttered.

"What? I did! That should have given him a small concussion at least," he breathed out as he got up and picked up Helmeppo. "Guess that doesn't affect people that don't use their brain," he sighed.

"Did you get the swords ye-" he looked at Nami and saw that the swords were not on her. "Guess not. OI!" he slapped the unconscious man with enough force to hurt but not enough to damage. "Daddy's boy! Wake up!"

Like a light switch being hit, Helmeppo was conscious again and sweating profusely. "Wha-" he saw his captors and almost fainted again.

Luffy put on his sweetest smile, and Nami slightly blushed at the image. "Where did ya hide the swords?" His words were sweet but the grip on the scruff of Helmeppo's neck was iron. He was making the message clear: 'speak or get maimed beyond recognition'.

"I-in my room, you can't miss it!" he stuttered out. "It has 'Helmeppo's room' written o-" Luffy slammed his head down to the desk incapacitating him again and dragging him out.

"Well, we have our route," he announced, urging Nami to follow.

"You know..." She walked up to him. "YOU COULD HAVE LET HIM STAY AWAKE LONG ENOUGH TO TELL US WHERE THE ROOM WAS!" she screamed slapping the back of his head hard enough that he stumbled forward.

"Shit, forgot, sorry..." Luffy muttered, lightly rubbing the location of the impact. "His voice was just so annoying…" he trailed off noticing the door with the flower-patterned label on it. 'Helmeppo's Room'.

Nami almost facepalmed. Luffy's eye twitched. "Why am I not surprised?"

* * *

Morgan was out for blood-

This was unacceptable. Every crack on the statue was an attack to his authority; downright treason against the world government itself.

His teeth were clenched tight to the point where his men could hear his jaws starting to groan, his forehead full of pulsing veins. His blood pressure must have been twice that of a normal human.

"Find." he seethed out, steam seemingly leaving his mouth. "Him."

The marines started to scratch against the door like wild animals trying to get it open.

* * *

Zoro was awoken again by a set of footsteps. "Who the fuck is it now?" he groaned. He tensed up as the person walking up to him started to mess around with the ropes. "OI WHO Are yo-" he stopped in his tracks when he saw the sniveling pink haired boy.

"Zo-Zoro, sir you gotta get out of here!" he managed to whimper out.

"Kid just get away from here before they hur-"

Zoro was cut off by Coby. "You gotta help Luffy, he attacked the base to set you free-" he sniffled, "he couldn't stand down after hearing that you were gonna be executed in three days." Zoro flinched. _The bastard had a chip like that and didn't use it to get me on his side?_

His thought was halted when a shot rang out, hitting Coby on the shoulder. The boy was sent flying back from the force of the impact.

"MEN, TAKE AIM!" bellowed Lieutenant Morgan as the rest of his men filed out of the base. He couldn't find the bastard that had destroyed his statue, but this guy would be good enough to take his anger out on.

"Ah, shit…" Zoro mumbled, staring at the rows and rows of muskets aimed at him.

* * *

Nami shuddered at the sound of the gunshot. "Luffy, we gotta get out of here!" she whined desperately as the man was still trying to come to terms with how fucking _pink _the entire room was.

"God this is hurting my eyes," he muttered and walked up to the swords near the window and saw the Marines taking aim at Zoro."NAMI!" she perked up immediately.

"Ye-" before she could answer Luffy shoved the three katanas into her hands and picked her up in a princess carry, causing her to squeal in surprise and dismay. He bound towards the window, his legs turning pale brown again.

"Froghopper!"

Nami screamed.

* * *

"FIRE AT WILL!" Morgan commanded.

_NO! Not here! _Zoro's eyes widened. _I still have a dream I must accomplish!_

For a moment, he could see Kuina, smirking down at him as he lost to her yet again.

_I can't fail her… _

* * *

Luffy flipped his body midair, facing his back to the marine squadron. His straw hat somehow managed to get on Nami's head.

Nami clung to his cardigan for dear life. She kept muttering 'This is how I die' under her breath over and over again.

"You aren't dying yet," he whispered as his body started to morph again.

His skin turned into iridescent black chitin, and started to expand, the black fading out and getting replaced with glossy white. His arms bulked up to the point where they resembled marble pillars, legs matching in girth. His head became smoother and his eyes sunk in slightly, turning compound again. His neck got a domed 'scruff' of armor. Two plate-like mandibles covered his mouth.

"IRON-CLAD" he announced, his much deeper voice muffled under the mouth-piece.

He hit the ground.

The marines fired.

Nami stiffened at the sound, Zoro stared in shock at the giant bug that landed; he could tell that it was grinning, even if he didn't know if it could, he _knew _it was grinning. Coby was on the ground looking at the beast with fear.

The bullets hit the domed chitin plating on his back, some ricocheted, others fell to the ground, not even leaving a dent on the mass of white.

It took a few seconds for everybody present to process the whole thing.

Nami didn't loosen her grip as she tenderly looked up, half expecting the strong arms holding her up to belong to an angel that was carrying her up to heaven. She sighed in relief as the face- well what she assumed to be a face- belonged to Luffy instead.

"You can let me go now" she whispered blushing slightly. He nodded and slowly let her go, his hat remaining on her head, and turned around at the marines who were still trying to figure out what on earth just happened.

"MEN!" Morgan bellowed, "USE SWORDS IF GUNS DON'T WORK!"

The marines broke out of their stupor at the command of their enraged lieutenant and charged, despite their still wobbling legs.

Luffy just opened his arms slowly as if accepting the attacks fully. He didn't even budge as the first slash hit him. The steel groaned almost like it was in pain as the recoil nearly snapped it in half.

"You're gonna need more than that toothpick," Luffy said with a smirk on his face.

"HOW ABOUT THIS?" Morgan roared, tearing his marine cape off him with his muscular arm and charged, raising his ax arm, muscles bulging as if they were filled with hate itself.

"Overcompensating, are we?" Luffy asked lifting his forearm to block the overly telegraphed attack.

Morgan used every fiber in his body and brought the massive ax down on Luffy's raised arm; aiming to chop through it like the many logs he had gone through in his life.

The edge of the ax struck true on Luffy's raised arm, the blade screeching against the hardened chitin. And then the sound intensified as the blade started ringing, warping under the weight of Morgan as the momentum of the attack carried through.

It shattered.

Morgan had a second to realize what was happening before the metal cracked, making him lose balance and stumble forward as the point of contact disappeared.

Luffy grabbed the falling Lieutenant's head with his other arm before he fell on top of him, keeping the man standing but prone.

Morgan finally managed to get his bearings and fought back, grabbing the arm holding him up. "I'LL KILL YO-" he didn't get to finish. Luffy tightened his grip, and the pressure knocked the corrupt officer out.

A few seconds passed. Everybody was looking at the unconscious beast of a man and the bug-man holding him up, still trying to comprehend the events that transpired.

Luffy shoved Morgan away, letting him fall on his back.

"Anyone else?" he asked, his compound eyes shining hungrily.

Zoro just looked in awe at the man that just neutralized a whole Marine platoon without even actually attacking them. "Just who the hell are you?"

Luffy looked over his shoulder at the man still tied up to the cross. "Monkey D. Luffy, fellow drea-"

He was cut off when the marines suddenly screamed "MORGAN!" Luffy dropped into a fighting stance. "HE IS DEFEATED!" they cheered, throwing their weapons in the air.

Nami just mumbled, "I think you broke them Luffy."

* * *

The word about Morgan's defeat had already spread through the town by the time Luffy and the rest managed to get Zoro off the cross.

The town's people were cheering at them as they walked down to Food Foo; Zoro, who was barely standing, was supported by Luffy at his right, his swords back on his waist. Nami was walking next to the straw-hatted teen, Coby tailing the three.

"So, Captain," Zoro wheezed out, "what's first on the list?"

Luffy smirked. "First food, then we have a pirate to vaporize." Nami's eyes glinted.

* * *

"How the hell did you eat more than me?" Zoro questioned looking at Luffy who was on his nth serving, he had lost count somewhere around number ten."I was starving for 9 days, what's your excuse?"

Luffy set his cutlery down and swallowed, dabbed his mouth with a tissue to clean had beaten table manners into him that he never would – never could, really - get out of his system; no matter how many years he had spent in a mountain bandit hideout. "Do you think restructuring my body takes up no energy? If so you are sorely mistaken."

"Yeah, what was that all about anyway?" The green haired swordsman muttered, still in a haze about the whole incident.

"He ate a devil fruit, the Kaibō-Kaibō Fruit to be exact, it lets him change his anatomy." Nami stated while peeling a tangerine, answering the question for Luffy. Zoro's eyes widened slightly. "Devil fruit? So the legends were real huh?"

"Oh. Also Luffy?" Nami said catching the teen's attention.

"Yeah Nam-"

He was punched in the face with enough force for his head to bounce off the table. "NEVER. DO THAT. AGAIN."

Zoro just looked at the display of power and gulped. This girl was clearly not someone to mess with.

Luffy groaned and lifted his head up. "Jumping out the window with you?" He then smirked. "Or carry you?"

Zoro just closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as his captain was punched again by a now slightly blushing navigator. _The hell did I sign up for?_

* * *

"Sorry Miss." Luffy apologized with a bow to the owner of the bar as they were persuaded out of the bar by the marines. It turned out to be Rika's mother who just waved his apology away, saying that it was no problem, as they were the saviors of the town.

The marines stopped them at the doors of the bar, "Sorry but are you p-" Ripper started, only to be cut off by Luffy.

"Commanding officer, I request a secure channel to Vice Admiral Garp!" The man paled at the order coming from the boy.

"I-I couldn't possibly do that, I would be fi-" Luffy's eyes didn't leave any room to argue. The man gulped in defeat and fear.

"Bring the den-den mushi" he ordered his men.

* * *

Everybody was on edge as the group settled back on a table at the restaurant, the snail in Luffy's hands. _I wonder if I can copy Den-den Mushi anatomy? _ He thought to himself as the snail rang a couple of times before getting picked up on the other side.

"This better be good," said a gruff voice, evidently eating something.

"Old Man" Luffy answered, and the other side sounded like they fell to the floor.

"BRAT WHERE ARE YO-" the group in Food Foo almost collapsed. Luffy's small crew glanced at him, _just who the hell is this guy? _

"Shells Town, got a cadet for you- small with pink hair. Take him as my stand in." Luffy said nonchalantly, twirling a fork on his other hand. Garp grunted. "Guess I have no other choice, eh snot-nose?"

"Yeah still don't wanna be a marine, and after what I've seen I'm just-" he glared at the platoon that was looking at the boy with fear in their eyes "-_ disappointed. _"

The people present could almost hear Garp pinch the bridge of his nose. "I am up to my tits in corrupt assholes," he grumbled from the other side.

"Oh, also" Luffy brought Garp's attention back "see you on the Grand Line, grandpa." he muttered and hung up the snail even as his grandfather was exclaiming something.

Luffy took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Ok you two." He pointed to Zoro and Nami. " We gotta get out of here before my grandpa finds me and decks me so hard it caves my face in - again." He shivered at the memories of all the 'fist of love's he had received throughout his life and then pointed at Coby. "You, act natural, grandpa loves guys like you, even with _those _two years you should be fine-" his hand shifted to the platoon still in the bar "and you all better prepare the pantry cause he is most definitely gonna eat all of it." He got up after his commands and left the restaurant.

Everybody else remained in their spots, processing what just happened.

"OI ZORO, NAMI WE GOTTA GO!" Luffy screamed from outside, causing the brains of everyone to reboot. The two dashed out following Luffy, Coby started hyperventilating, even some of the Marines just collapsed and the rest started running around like headless chickens.

* * *

Zoro, Nami and Luffy were out on the sea before any of them said anything again. The two were still too shaken by the call Luffy had with Garp. "I can't believe 'Garp the Hero' is your grandfather." Zoro mumbled absentmindedly.

Luffy just chuckled. "You would see the resemblance if we met." The laughter slowly died down.

"Ah- right" Luffy perked up, remembering that he had never gotten Zoro's dream. "What is your dream, Zoro?"

There was no hesitation. "To become the world's greatest swordsman," Zoro replied with steel in his voice. "And if you get in my way I will cut you down," he added darkly.

"I would be disappointed if you didn't," Luffy answered, his smile widening

"You said you were helping her too, "Zoro nodded towards Nami, trying to fill the silence, "whats her dream?"

"I don't kn-"Luffy was cut off by Nami, who was slowly coming out of her catatonic state.

"Its to get one hundred million Berri," her voice was strained, "and to buy a village."

Zoro just raised an eyebrow. "A village?"

Luffy shook his head, shutting the question down. _No need to question others' dreams. _

Nami seemed to relax a little and open up after telling her 'dream' "What about you Luffy?" Luffy looked at her, a smirk appearing on his face. "I'm gonna become the king of pirates!" he announced with certainty.

Nami's face froze, Zoro just blinked. "You really mean that?" he asked, almost rhetorically. It was evident in his voice that he meant every syllable.

"Pirate?" Namis hands shook._ 'Nami do you trust me?' _"You are a pirate?" She asked again, her voice wavering."The scum of the seas?" Her hands formed fists, shaking harder by the minute."To think I trusted you even a little-"

Zoro flinched as she raised her hand, and tried to punch Luffy.

Tried to.

Luffy used the back of his hand and redirected her fist, causing her to miss his head, and stumble forward.

Onto his lap.

"Jackass!" She whimpered, her face buried in the crook of his neck. "Idiot!" she weakly punching his chest. "I hate-" she sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "I HATE PIRATES!" She punched his chest again.

_Why does it hurt so much? _she hissed in her mind.

Zoro didn't know what to do, so he just lay there. Luffy simply took the hits, a small frown on his face.

_Why do I care so much that he is a damn pirate? I just knew him for a day!_

"Nami-" He said her name softly. She stiffened.

"Don't SAY MY NAME!" She punched his chest again. "NO PIRATE SHOULD SAY MY NAME!" Tears were welling up in her eyes.

_Did I let him get under my skin?_

Feeling her warm tears on his back Luffy slowly hugged the crying navigator, who surprisingly pushed herself into it, whimpering into his shoulder.

"I don't know what kind of pirates you met," he whispered, softly petting her back. "But I can assure you-" Nami shifted, looking into his black eyes. "I am not one of those."

The words struck a chord in Nami; his voice was firm like steel, yet compassionate and kind.

For that moment, she trusted the man holding her with her life.

"I am a pirate for the freedom, the adventure," his hand raised up to his hat, "and a little bit for the-" he pulled the garment off and put it on her head "treasure."

"T-treasure?" Nami sputtered, clinging onto the familiar word her whole life was built around for the last 10 years, her tears slowing down.

"That is my treasure," Luffy explained. Zoro got a sympathetic look as his hand went to his Wado Ichimonji.

"The- the hat?" She further inquired, tears slowing to a crawl. Luffy simply nodded.

"Now, don't we have a village to buy?"

She just leaned back in, pushing her head on the crook of his neck again.

"Idiot."


	5. Tiger Hunt

It was night time, the stars reflecting off the calm waters of East Blue. The boat commandeered by Alvida pirates gently bobbed up and down. The crew of three was in various states of rest in the ship gently gliding on the smooth ocean with the gentle breeze the night provided.

Zoro snored softly leaning against the side of the boat; he had let slumber take hold soon after Nami had, who was still on Luffy's lap breathing evenly.

The navigator had a content smile on her face as she snuggled up to the living radiator that was Luffy, who was still up. He had retrieved his hat when she fell asleep, and was petting her head lightly.

_Last few days really took a toll on her eh? _

His eyes moved off the sleeping woman and onto his… _First mate I guess? Nami would fit better as the treasurer or something…_

_Meh, decisions for later. _

He focused on the other man. He was shorter than Luffy by a few centimeters yet he looked just as intimidating, even when walking side by had a muscular body, shoulders wider than his own, even after the nine days of starvation the muscles on him were pronounced, and even thicker than his. _Constant muscle training? _Luffy mused.

_I didn't know hair even came in that color _he giggled under his breath at the light green coloration of Zoro's hair, short and wild, much like his own in that aspect.

His eyes slowly gravitated down onto the hair of the girl in his arms.

_Then again, her hair isn't the most common either _, he thought, his hand continuing to comb through her hair and tussling her orange, chin length locks. He hadn't seen this shade since his days at that bandit hideout.

At first glance Nami could be mistaken as weak, but after taking a few of her hits, and the contact between them as she slept, Luffy could see how wrong that assumption would be.

She had a slender body, true, but she felt like steel beneath the skin. Her legs were over his own, and from what he could feel, they could rival his own in terms of being toned, and the delicate hands holding onto his cardigan were deceptively strong in their grip.

_Lean muscle _Luffy concluded, not as pronounced as what he and Zoro had, weaker in terms of raw power but couldn't be beat when it came to dexterity and agility. Something a professional cat burglar like her would have gained as the years went by.

"I got a good few for my crew huh?" he mumbled under his breath, looking up at the night sky; he was smiling at the stars as he let himself be lost in thought.

The chilly wind passed again causing Nami to snuggle up to the pirate-king-to-be even further.

_Her skin is so soft _he thought as her cheek rubbed against his neck.

Her decently sized cleavage pressed against his chest.

_...Be still little one._

* * *

It was the early hours of morning when Nami slowly woke up, she hadn't had a sleep that good in over ten years. She stretched out like a cat, raising her arms above her head with a silent yawn. Her brain was slowly coming to, remembering where she was.

Or who she was on.

With a shrill 'eep' she stumbled off the sleeping captain, who luckily didn't wake up from the commotion. Zoro, on the other hand was wide awake, his katana already unsheathed and was ready to cut down whoever was the reso-

_Oh. _

"Good morning to you too," he groggily mumbled to the blushing navigator, rubbing his eyes, and sheathing his katana. "Not used to waking on top of your boyfriend?" he asked teasingly.

She shot him a glare. "He's not my boyfriend," she hissed, her blush fading slightly.

"Whatever floats your boat," Zoro said, voice slightly tinged with sarcasm, not enough to make a newly-woken Nami start a fight over.

"Good, glad we are clear on that," she huffed, looking around at the sea.

"Where _are _we?" she mumbled, she had no point of reference to even guess where the boat was headed. Just an endless horizon of blue.

"Luffy plotted out the trajectory..." Zoro said, yawning, "said something about 'trusting his instincts' or something."

"Instincts? What the hell does that even mean?" Nami grumbled. A silence fell over the two.

A few minutes passed.

"Hey Zoro," Nami broke the silence as the boat slowly continued to bob in the calm water. "You said you wanted to be the best swordsman in the world, right?"

"Yeah what of it?" he answered back.

"Do you ever regret having it?" Nami asked, looking at the floor of the ship.

Zoro didn't know what to say. He just stretched back, looking at the sky. He thought back the blue haired girl he was beat by oh so many times when he was young. His hand found and gingerly dragged itself across the hilt of Wado.

"…I would lay down my life for my dream." He started. "I cannot break the promise I made to _her." _His gruff voice was unusually soft at that end. Whoever 'she' was Nami doubted that she was still alive.

She knew how people sounded when talking about dead loved ones.

"…I see," she mumbled still looking at the boards making up the bottom of the ship.

"_ Someone is coming, _" Luffy announced, making Nami jump and Zoro grip his swords.

"WHEN DID YOU EVEN WAKE UP?!" Nami screeched, bonking him in the head to no effect.

"Two- no three people" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and seemingly looking through Nami. She had a front row seat to see his eyes change color and shape as they focused on the tiny dot of a ship in the distance.

"Why does that even matter?" she exclaimed eyebrows twitching in annoyance.

"Their Jolly Roger has a red nose and clown makeup," he said, knowing that would get her attention.

Nami's eyes shone red.

"**Buggy!**" she growled, looking in the same direction as Luffy.

_This crew is something else… _Zoro thought as he looked at the antics of the two. _At least the captain is strong._

* * *

After a few minutes, the pirate ship was visible to both Nami and Zoro too. Luffy looked at the fidgety swordsman, at how hungry he looked for action.

"Zoro, go ahead, just remember," he smirked as the swordsman was already putting his bandana on and prepping to swim to the other ship, "we need at least one alive."

"Aye captain!" Zoro said and jumped into the water, making a beeline for the pirate ship like a shark with a scent for blood.

The three crew members manning the boat didn't stand a chance.

* * *

"So, Buggy has taken over Orange town?" Luffy asked the crew of three. _…where did I hear that name before? _

Nami shivered as she combed through the treasure in the boat; that sounded way too similar to the fate of Cocoyashi.

With the treasure in Buggy's boat she was almost at the mark, _ten_ _ thousand left to go._

"Hey Nam...i" she jumped at hearing Luffy say her name.

"Yeah Luffy?"

"You were Looking for a map, right?" She nodded. "Guessing you have some navigation skills, you wouldn't happen to know where Orange town is would you?" He leaned in "I don't really trust these bozo's to lead us to the right place."

"Oh sure, I know where that is, I can lead us if you want me to." she smiled, "though you gotta pay me." She stuck her tongue out.

"Eh? Stingy," Luffy grumbled childishly. _So under all that intellect he is still a kid huh? _Nami thought with a giggle.

"Well, being navigated by the best navigator on east blue is not free," she huffed in a playful way.

Luffy's eyes widened. "The best you say?"

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" she huffed angrily.

Luffy just raised his hands in defense. "Nothing, just surprised," he grinned, "wouldn't guess the best thief would be the best navigator too..."

"GET A ROOM YOU TWO!" Zoro yelled from the newly acquired buggy ship tied to the life raft. His outburst earned him a swift punch to the back of the head courtesy of a blushing Nami.

* * *

It was midday by the time they hit land. Leaving the Buggy trio tied up inside the buggy ship Luffy's crew moved out to scout out the town.

"Jesus this place is deserted," Luffy thought out loud. "You gonna scavenge the houses?"

Nami turned to him with slight disgust. "No. I have standards," she simply said, "they are mostly devoid of valuables anyway."

"Thought so but didn't want to assu-" Luffy did a double-take. "WHEN DID YOU EVEN CHECK?" he gaped eliciting a small fit of laughter from Nami.

"Relax, just joking Luffy~"

They suddenly stopped. No groaning about their slightly flirty talk.

"Luffy, where is Zoro?"

"..We were walking on a straight path…." Luffy muttered looking around, eyes shifting trying to see anywhere he might've gotten to, but he found nothing in his range, there was only so much he could see "..did- did he- no. The better question is _how _did he get lost?"

* * *

"Damn Luffy and Nami for getting lost..." Zoro grumbled as he walked down a narrow path, not realizing he wasn't even close to the main street that they were walking down."Probably ducked in a house to make out or some shit, fucking lovebirds." he grumbled again, hitting a pebble across the ground. "God, I need a drink."

He didn't sense the giant peculiarly colored lion or its tamer, lurking in the shadows.

Stalking their prey.

Hunting.

* * *

Luffy had given up on finding Zoro, even with his superior eyesight and sense of smell he couldn't track him down. _The tracks keep fucking looping on themselves, what the hell _.

Truth be told, Zoro could probably avoid a pack of bloodhounds thanks to his weird walking patterns.

"Guess we gotta wait for him to show up or cause some noise," he huffed along with Nami who tiredly sighed .

"I just hope he can keep his head down so we can sneak away after stealing the map," she groaned.

They started walking again, ending up in front of a pet store. A small white dog sitting close to it was growling at them.

"What's that dog even doing?" Nami questioned as Luffy crouched down looking at the dog intently. "Luffy don't mess with it, it might bite you," Nami warned, but Luffy seemed to ignore her.

"Not gonna harm your shop buddy," he said to the dog.

Nami just huffed. "He won't understand yo-" She was taken aback by the dog suddenly stopping his growling and sitting down again, giving them the stink eye but nothing more. "...Huh."

"You two," an old voice called out, making both Nami and Luffy look at the old man in a wooden chest-plate walking up to the store. "Don't hurt Shuushuu," he growled. The oldtimer still seemed to have some fight in him.

"Who would hurt a dog?" Luffy grumbled, looking back at the dog, slowly raising his hand and petting it.

It didn't react.

"Buggy's crew," the man responded, with slight awe. Luffy was the first person Shuushuu allowed to pet him.

"Didn't know you were good with animals, Luffy," Nami mused crouching next to the straw-hatted man.

"Eh, he is easy to understand," Luffy answered modestly. "Hey gramps," he looked over to the new arrival, "why is he guarding this pet store?"

"It belonged to his owner, my late friend…" the man trailed off softly reminiscing about the kind man that was Shushuu's late owner.

Nami just pouted sadly. "Is he waiting for him to return?"

"Nah," Luffy answered, shocking the old timer. "He knows his owner isn't returning."

"What makes you say that?" Nami mumbled placing her hands on her hips.

"His eyes," Luffy answered after a moment of consideration, "they are the eyes of somebody guarding their _treasure _, not someone waiting."

"Treasure? You mean the store?" Nami questioned with a raised eyebrow. _Guess he can even read animals._

"Oh sorry," the oldtimer exclaimed remembering that he never truly introduced himself. "I'm Boodle, leader of the village", he sat down at the porch of the store and took out a pipe. "Guess you could call me the chief"

"And yeah," he mumbled with melancholy, "the owner of the store opened it up ten years ago with Shushuu, guess he is trying to protect it and all the memories they had in the store." He took a breath out of the pipe, letting the nicotine soak into his lungs.

Nami smiled. _No wonder Luffy understood him so well. _Her gaze slowly lifted up to the straw hat on his head.

* * *

"What now?" Zoro grumbled as he reached a dead end and heard a loud growl. He turned around to see a man riding a large lion, roughly double his height. He grinned hungrily.

"I was looking for a worthy fight anyway," he hissed clicking his sword out of its sheath just a second before the lion pawed him, sending him through the wall.

"Well done Ritchie," Mohji smirked as he looked into the hole Zoro was sent through.

"But this feels kinda too easy," he mumbled his smirk still on his face, _guess he was weaker then what the rumors suggested._

_But then again..._

"Ritchie, follow him."

* * *

"Hey Luffy, mind me asking about your ha-" Nami was cut off by Zoro crashing through a nearby house and skidding to a stop on the street, swords in an x shape as he was blocking something;

"Dammit my footing was off!" He grumbled, seemingly not noticing the proximity of his captain. He was about to jump back through the hole-

"Oh, found him," Luffy said nonchalantly as he rose back up, Nami burying her face in her hands in the background.

"Eh?" Zoro turned around, seeing his two crewmates. "So this is where you guys got lost to."

"YOU WERE THE ONE THAT GOT LOST!" Nami screamed, Luffy just faltered almost falling face first.

The budding argument was halted when a giant lion leaped out of the rubble that used to be a house. Nami and Boodle took a fearful step back.

"Guess you are harder to kill eh, Roronoa Zoro?" the man riding the lion mused, a pompous smirk on his face

"Guess I'll tell you my name, wouldn't want you to die not knowing who killed you-" he shrugged as Richie stared hungrily to the pet store, "I am beast tamer Mo-"

"Zoro where the hell did you find this weirdo with the weird hat?" Luffy asked nonchalantly, sitting down on the ground, not even intimidated by the giant lion.

"THAT'S MY HAIR!" Mohji yelled out, clearly annoyed.

"Now that just makes it weirder." Luffy huffed. _White hair growing out like bear ears? That's one unique hairstyle._

_" _He found me, captain," Zoro sheathed one of his swords, his hand reaching for Wado instead. "Mind if I cut him down?" He slowly unsheathed the white-hilted sword.

"Eh, don't hurt the lion too much, and keep 'em alive." Luffy muttered looking up to the sky bored out of his head.

"Aye-aye captain." Zoro placed the white hilt to his mouth and drew out the last sword again, dropping into his fighting stance.

"Ritchie," Mohji hissed, he was seeing red. _These cocky bastards. _" _Lunch time. _"

Boodle ran for cover and Nami rushed to where she thought would be the safest, next to Luffy, drawing out an arched eyebrow from the captain. As Richie pounced on Zoro, claws were clashing against steel.

"You fool, you can't beat Richie in a battle of raw strength, he is a 5 ton-" Mohji stopped when he felt Richie being lifted up under him. Zoro, in an amazing show of strength, was pushing the large cat back with gritted teeth.

With a grunt, Zoro pushed Richie fully making him stand on his hind feet, causing him to lose his balance. "Tiger-" he called out, "hunt."

For a second he was a gust of wind, cutting against anything it touched. Then the second passed and he took a step forward, looking back at his handiwork over his shoulder. The mane of the lion was cut off completely and its claws clipped. "…not even worth the effort," he grunted, teeth still around Wado.

Richie fell onto his back, scared unconscious and crushing Mohji underneath his weight in the process.

"Thought a giant lion would be way stronger…" Zoro grunted with some disappointment laced in his voice as he pulled Wado out of his mouth. He really needed a good challenge after what happened with Morgan.

* * *

Luffy whistled. "Good job, Zoro."

Nami was just frozen. _What kind of monsters am I in league with?_

She gulped. _Well working with monsters isn't anything new for me, is it? _she thought somberly _. _She could have sworn she was hearing a 'sha sha sha' coming from somewhere.

"It was nothing captain, these guys are barely small fry," Zoro said sheathing his swords.

"Hmmm" Luffy mused. It would take some work but he could make a man out of this Mohji fellow. A beast tamer in the crew would be useful… maybe.

"Welp, guys" He smirked. "wanna save this town while we're at it?"

* * *

Ritchie was hogtied using Luffy's webbing, Boodle was locked inside a home too; he would have just gotten himself hurt. The crew of three plus a hostage made their way up to the settlement Buggy had set up.

"A circus tent?" Zoro said, looking at the giant tent in the distance. He hadn't managed to get lost. Yet.

"He _is _called Buggy the clown." Nami mused.

"Honestly surprised he is that invested in the theme," Luffy mused guiding Mohji along.

"So the clown is this way, eh beast-men?" He asked the unwilling guide.

"Yes sir," Mohji mumbled, fear in his voice. "Captain Buggy is there."

"Does anyone else feel like this is too easy?" Zoro grumbled.

That earned him a gentle punch on the back of the head by Nami. "Don't jinx it."

Luffy stiffened. He suddenly turned around. "GET BEHIND ME"

"Wait wha-"

"Iron-"

Neither sentence was finished as the natural disaster that was the Buggy Ball hit the crew.

* * *

The street that Nami was standing in had been scorched, the paving upheaved and scattered everywhere. Houses had lost their windows just because of the shockwave the massive explosion created.

It looked like a war zone.

The only reason she was standing, _alive _even, was standing in front of her; Mohji by his feet, the tall form Monkey D. Luffy was covered in thick, white chitin plating.

She looked at him in awe for what felt like an eternity, stepping over a catatonic Mohji, before he stumbled onto his knees, coughing slightly.

"Fuckin hell, that thing packs a punch," he coughed up, his transformation wearing out.

"LUFFY!" she hunched over him trying to see if he was hurt, panicking slightly.

"I'm fine," he hissed. "The cannonball got me before everything was transformed, but it couldn't pierce through the incomplete shell," he laughed tiredly. "The clown can't even-" his smart-ass comment died in his mouth Nami hugged him tightly.

"Don't do that ever again-"

"I will, Nami, I would rather take a cannon like that fifty more times before I see the two of-" he stopped, Nami looked back angrily at him.

The anger in her eyes slowly shifted into shock.

"Zoro!"


	6. Back from the dead

**A/N:** this fic is dead when I say its dead.

* * *

"Zoro loses."

Zoro hissed, panting on the floor, the kendo swords he was using rolling to his sides.

_Dammit. _

Kuina stood before him, barely panting, pointing her kendo sword to his head.

_DAMMIT. _

"You are so weak." she chided, but there was no bite to her words.

It somehow made it all worse.

_GOD. DAMMIT. _

* * *

He was on the ground again.

Using real swords hadn't helped him at all.

All his training hadn't helped him at all.

Kuina was victorious all over again, barely breaking a sweat.

"Dammit!" he hissed, rolling to his back and looking up to the night sky. "DAMMIT."

"Why am I so weak!" he screamed up to the heavens, not even caring Kuina was hearing all of it, "It's so unfair!"

"It is," Kuina mumbled, taking a seat on the porch of the dojo. "You'll surpass me in no time."

"Huh-" he grumbled, hissing as he sat up. "What the hell do you mean?"

"Zoro, we are young- that's the only reason I can beat you." she mumbled, resting her hand on her chest. "My dad- he was clear with me about this."

His eye twitched, groaning as he got to his feet. "The hell do you mean! You think you can talk down to me just cause you beat me?"

"Zoro, I'm being honest!" she spat out, almost disgusted by the words she was uttering. "I'm a woman- there is no way I could keep up with your strength as we grow older!"

"Eehhh?" he grit his teeth. He knew it, she never took him seriously.

He wasn't even worth her mockery.

"So you are saying when I beat you, it'll be cause I'm a man?" he spat to the side, disgusted by the prospect. "How low do you think I am!?"

Kuina looked shocked for a moment, before starting to giggle lightly with a soft blush.

To this day, he couldn't figure out what that meant.

"You are the only one that beat me in all the dojo's on this island." he hissed, trying to ignore the weird sensation bubbling in his chest. "Don't go disgracing me by saying you're so weak."

"That's- so you," she mumbled, stopping her giggling and looking up to the night sky. "Do you have a dream Zoro?"

"Of course," he hissed, looking to the side, focusing onto the swords he had left on the floor. "To be the greatest swordsman."

"Ah. We had the same dream." she mused behind him.

"Had?" he shot a look to her over his shoulder.

"I'm not the right-"

"Shut! Up! About that!" he hissed, turning to face her, his hands balled into fists hard enough to ache from his nails digging into his palms. "You are gonna let something that little get in the way of your dream!?"

She smiled, getting off from the porch and making her way to him. "Y'know… you are right."

"I'll meet you at the top then, Eh, Zoro?" She chided, patting him over the shoulder. "One of us will be the greatest swordsman in the world."

"I'll fight you all the way to the goal!"

* * *

"She died."

Zoro couldn't even look up to the Dojo owner.

"She fell down the stairs, snapped her neck." He clarified. Sorrow leaking with every word, but none showing in his posture. No tears.

He knew then that it couldn't be a dream.

"I'm sorry Zoro."

"Her sword- can I have it?" he muttered, shocked by how hollow he had sounded.

She died.

He didn't hear a response, only the weight of the white blade in his hands.

He slowly pulled it free of the sheath, seeing himself in the reflection on the steel.

"Zoro" he heard the muffled sounds, brain relating them to his late friend.

"Zoro-"

"Zoro!"

Were the sounds getting louder?

"Kuina?"

"ZORO!"

* * *

He opened his eyes, sight slightly blurred from the sudden light, one of the darker blurs moving debris aside with urgency. "Zoro, you ok?"

Zoro sighed, blinking a bit as his sight returned, noticing Luffy standing over him with-

"The hell are those on your head?"

His captain laughed, the oddly cat-like ears on his head twitching with delight before slowly sinking back into his hair and out of the way.

"Bat ears," he explained, dusting off his vest and sighing in relief "how did you mess up hiding behind me?"

Zoro didn't have an answer to that, only grunting and attempting to get to his feet.

Luffy looked worried for a moment before helping him up, getting under his shoulder to give him some support. "You're tougher than you look, y'know?"

"Something that little won't do me in." he hissed, other hand doing a once over himself and sighing with relief at the contact with his swords. "What's the plan? Captain?"

"Hit you over the head a few times, then leave you with the captain of the village while I take care of Buggy." he explained, ruffling the older mans hair. "You did well today, first mate. Rest for a bit."

"You're pushing me to the side?" he hissed, the memories bringing out some of his resentment of being weak. "I'm not done _yet _."

Luffy seemed to stop, his eyes looking deep into his.

Zoro could feel the hair on the back of his neck start to rise. Something primal in him was getting restless under the gaze of his captain.

His face broke in a smirk. Just what had he gotten himself into?

Luffy laughed, pulling away and slapping him on the back, causing him to stumble to his knees but not fall on his face, his arms barely catching him.

"What gives!?"

"Good." Luffy hollered from behind him. Moving forward, he chuckled. "I was worried over nothing in the end,"

"What!?" Zoro stumbled to his feet, one of his hands going to his swords. "Was this just a test?"

"Eh?" the straw-hat wearing teen turned around with an unreadable expression. "What kind of idiot would test their crew like that? I just underestimated you-"

Zoro's eyes narrowed, hand leaving his sword.

He had one eccentric captain, that was for sure.

"I hope you won't make that mistake again."

Luffy laughed, turning his back on him.

"Ronoroa Zoro, you have my word."

* * *

"Nami!" he shouted out, the navigator almost tripping at the shout from behind her. Shooting a look back, her eyes widened

Zoro was standing again.

_ARE THEY FUCKING MORONS? _

She sighed, halting her trek towards the village chief, and hopefully medical care, and instead rushed back to the two in her crew.

"Luffy- I thought you had some modicum of sense!" she hissed, gripping his red vest and shaking him back and forth. "You know how dangerous it is for him to be standing up! What if he has a concussion? Orinternal hemorrhaging?"

The cute idiot laughed in her face at the questions, gripping her hand and stilling her shaking. "He's fiiiiine, Nami. Besides, since when did you care about the health of pirates?"

"You two are different!"

She blinked, starting to slowly blush at what she had spilled out in the heat of the moment.

He blinked, his face slowly splitting into a shit-eating grin.

She punched him in the head, causing the young captain to fall flat on his back.

She stopped caring for Zoro's health when she heard him cackle in the background.

_That. fucking. IDIOT. _

* * *

Few minutes earlier

* * *

"Captain Buggy." One of his subordinates rambled, shuddering as he made his way to the throne the clown was lounging on.

"Mohji hasn't…"

The captain clicked his tongue, noticing that the crewman was looking at his nose.

_Unacceptable. _

He cackled as the crewman suddenly floated into the air, gasping and groaning. "You got something to say about my nose?"

"N-no captain..."

"You sure?" he grinned, enjoying watching the life start to drain from the crewman. "Nothing about it being big? You seem to be unable to look away from it."

"N-no, I wouldn't say anything about your red nose sir!"

"RED?! YOU THINK ITS DISGUSTING DON'T YOU!"

"N-no captain-!"

"Fire the buggy ball."

His crew worked efficiently, the cannonball being loaded and lit faster than the crewmember could choke to unconsciousness.

Then again, he wasn't squeezing that hard. It was always funnier seeing the last expression on their faces before the cannonball hit.

The moment of knowing they would die. _Ahhh, pure fear. _

It nourished him in a way booze or food couldn't.

Fire and brimstone shot through, taking the crewman with it, wreaking havoc to the town behind him too.

"Aaaah, another happy explosion..."

"Now then," he turned around, raising a mug high into the air. "LETS TOAST!"

A nearby movement drew his attention, which turned out to be his fidgeting first mate, the acrobat Cabaji.

"What's wrong, first mate?"

"Something feels… off"

"Y're overthinking stuff."

* * *

"Welp." Luffy looked down on the unconscious Mohji who had somehow managed to get knocked out in the few minutes that had taken him to echolocate Zoro.

_Kinda weak, isn't he? _

"Is that going to hinder our plans, captain?" his first mate groaned, shaking his head again, combing through his lime-green hair. "_ God, I need some booze _" he added under his breath.

"I mean," Luffy smirked, looking at the pathway the explosion had carved out for them to follow. "guess we don't really need him at this point, do we?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Nami muttered from his side, leaning on his shoulder, staring up to him with an unimpressed expression. "I'm gonna take the side route and loot everything they have while you guys take care of the fighters-"

She paused when the young captain tilted his head, then shook his head "Nah, I'm gonna take them all down in one shot, stick to us."

Nami blinked a few times, growing content with his words. Just something about how he said them filled her with the urge to believe, to trust him fully.

It was frightening, considering what he was, and what she was forced to be.

"Besides, if you took the side route you might accidentally get caught in the crossfire."

She blinked, fear crossing through her mind. "Ah."

* * *

"OI!"

The party Buggy started ground to a halt, every single one of the crewmembers twitching with anger at the interruption.

"You guys the Buggy pirate crew?!"

"Who's asking?" Buggy called back out, walking to the railing of the bar's rooftop seating area "Who the hell are you?"

"The man that's going to be the king of pirates!" the red-vest screamed in response, puffing his chest with pride.

He reminded him of that straw-hat wearing buffoon he had dealt with all those years ago.

Buggy choked on his spit when he spotted the same straw hat on the head of the new idiot bothering him.

"You!- YOU!"

He breathed out. Centering himself, no need to pop a gasket over this, after all, there was no chance Red-hair would be here. Besides, the group of three looked tough; maybe wanna-be recruits?

_Ah. Its good to be infamous. _

"Do you want to join our crew?" he called out, smiling sweetly down at the three.

_Wait, is that Ronoroa Zoro? _

"Nah." the kid with the straw hat called back, seemingly stretching his joints.

Some of his clown crew screamed in anger at the speed of the rejection.

"Then what the hell you want?"

"To punch you in your red clown nose, obviously."

"OH YOU THINK YOU'RE FUNNY HUH?" he exploded, chopping his arm to the side, crew already moving to prepare the Buggy cannon. "MEN. FIRE THE BUGGY BALL!"

"Luffy. If I die, I will haunt you 'til you die too." the orange-haired woman whimpered, her eyes flashing with a delectable amount of fear.

The pirate captain's eyes glanced at the kid who had spat his life away and paused.

The kid was laughing at him, no fear as the fuse reached its end, fire glowing in the depths of the armament.

At that moment, Captain Buggy knew fear once more.

* * *

"Captain, you got this?" Zoro mumbled, only shooting a weary glance at the younger man, eyebrow rising high.

"Now who's underestimating who?" he shot back, arm starting to transform and growing darker. "Nami take a step back I need a bit of personal space for this."

The woman noticed that she was almost hiding behind her captain at that point, jumping away with a blush. "Aight, aight. You sure though?"

Luffy didn't respond, cackling as the cannon shot forth, his eyes changing and watching the cannonball sail towards him, the insignia of Buggy's Jolly Roger pasted on the red explosive.

_Now, gotta do this with the right timing. _

He breathed out, reaching out with his hand, waiting for the moment of contact.

And in mere milliseconds, he felt the touch of the scorching hot metal against his armored fingertips.

His body reacted, pushing his arm to the side, feeling the satisfying weight of the mass of steel stuck to his palm and followed through with a spin, forcing his fingers closed at the end detaching his palm with practiced ease. Effectively redirecting the shot right back to the group of clown pirates on the rooftop with one fluid motion.

He laughed, shaking his hand with a hiss after the fact, watching the fear in the eyes of the pirate crew before the cannonball hit.

Zoro whistled, chuckling lightly at the scene. "Didn't know you could do that..."

Nami looked paralyzed in her spot. "H-how?"

"Well you loosen your shoulders a bit, spin around- ah but you gotta have something very sticky in your hand." Luffy explained, tapping a finger on his chin. "You should be able to do it, though, you look dexterous enough"

"I'M HUMAN, LUFFY!" She shot back, chopping him on the head.

The man only laughed more boisterously, not even reacting to her chop. "You're underestimating yourself!"

"Luf-" whatever Nami was going to say got cut off, as the thief noticed the still standing forms of a few pirates, hiding behind her young captain. "H-how are they still standing?!"

Luffy blinked, taking note of how the pirates still 'standing' were being held up by Buggy and another crewman. "Oh." He grit his teeth "They used their crew as cover."

Nami took note, as this was the first time she had seen Luffy get even close to angry.

Part of her registered how _menacing _he had become in one short second. It was like night and day.

"Cabaji." Buggy hissed out, dropping the three pirates he was holding, and shooting a look at his first mate. "Kill him."

The green-haired man pulled out an unicycle out of nowhere and reached in his mouth, pulling out a sword. "With pleasure."

"Ew." Luffy mumbled, looking at Zoro. "You wanna deal with him?"

"If spit gets on me, I'm going to be mad." His first mate muttered, biting onto the hilt of Wado, pulling the other two out of their sheaths "want me to toy with him?"

"Eh, don't be callous now." Luffy shot back, shrugging lightly. "Just finish him in one move, but no killing."

"You got it captain."

"YOU!" Buggy called out, taking the attention of Luffy, Zoro focusing purely on the target in front of him. "You are the bounty hunter Ronoroa Zoro, aren't you? Are you here for my head?"

"Oni."

Luffy ignored the commotion, taking a look at Nami. "You go ahead and loot the place, we got the rest covered."

The wind picked up, Zoro appearing behind Cabiji in a glint of metal. "GIRI."

Nami shivered at the sight, nodding without a word and dashing away into the rubble.

The Acrobat struggled, the unicycle breaking apart under him, causing him to drop to the ground on his knees, wheezing from the many shallow cuts all over him.

"W-wha… how?" he muttered, trying to turn to take a look at the Ex-pirate hunter. The effort was enough to cause his body to give under him, crashing to the ground unconscious.

"Gah." Zoro groaned, rubbing his forehead with irritation. "They still don't put up enough of a fight. It's getting annoying."

"We'll get better fighters in the Grand Line" Luffy called out, staring down Buggy.

The clown's expression sat somewhere between scared and absolutely livid.

Luffy's eyes narrowed, something was off.

"Zoro. you hang back with this one."

The swordsman huffed, sheathing his weapons once more. "You got it cap'n."

"AH!" Buggy seemed to shiver, taking a step back. "Why did you call him off?"

"...suspicion confirmed." Luffy breathed out, cracking his chitinous hand. "You ate a Devil Fruit didn't you?"

"Wha-" Buggy's face paled. _Can he read minds? My power was supposed to be unknown! _

"Neither you nor your first mate seemed to question my arm." Luffy shrugged. "Kind of a dead give away, don't you think?"

"_ Shit. _" Buggy hissed grabbing three daggers from under his cloak, gripping each between his fingers as he pulled a fist. "But just knowing that won't give you the fight! Shitty Strawhat!"

Luffy blinked as the man punched forward. Way out of range, to be of any danger. Only for the Clown captain to smirk as his arm split at his wrist, gloved hand shooting forward at unexpected speeds.

Luffy didn't dodge, instead raising his other hand with a tired expression.

_"Iron-clad" _

Buggy regretted his life choices.

Luffy grabbed the hand-turned projectile with ease, crushing the daggers under the grip, Buggy barely pulling his hand back in time to not have it be turned into a mass of mangled flesh.

He flexed his fingers as his hand reattached back to his arm, thankful that he managed to dodge that. "What the hell are you! A beetle-men?"

"Of sorts. What are you? A sectioned man?"

He didn't need a response as Buggy's eyes bugged out, both almost popping out of his skull at the accusation.

On the side Zoro mumbled something about 'pain in the ass,' likely thankful he didn't try to cut the captain himself.

"I got everything!" Nami called out, lugging a giant bag of loot over her shoulder, her legs trembling lightly from the weight. "And the map too!"

"Good going, I'm about wrapped up here anyway!" Luffy called out with a smirk that caused Buggy to fear for his life.

_One last ace in the hole... _

"Bara-Bara Escape!"

Buggy laughed as his body separated into small parts and started spinning around Luffy, trying to confuse the man. He just needed a second, just enough to get a lethal hit in, a stab in the kidney and he would be victorious.

He questioned what was going on as the black gauntlet on his target's right arm faded away, dark eyes locking up onto his segmented ones.

_'Now' _his brain screamed, one of his hands gripping the dagger shot at the man's back, aiming to maim him for life.

Only to fly off without hitting a target as Luffy took a step to the side, touching one of his separated parts.

_What the hell is this kid... _

"Doesn't matter!" he cackled, the sections starting to spin faster "You can't hurt me when I'm like this! And I just need a moment to-"

"To…"

He gulped as he noticed his body parts were starting to clump together, tied tightly as if caught in a spider… web.

He blinked, noticing the tell-tale glint of silk coming from the fingertips of the captain.

"Oh no."

Luffy smiled, his left hand transforming again, white gauntlet melting away and replaced with neon green fingers and red bulbous fingertips, looking ready to flick something to death.

"Oh yes."

He really didn't want to test out what would happen if one of his parts was too far away from his body, instincts forcing him to re-assemble as fast as possible.

Only to end up as a head with hands and feet, the rest of his body stuck to the ground by the spider web his opponent had conjured up.

"Thanks for making this easier!" Luffy roared, fist pulled back and ready to fire.

Buggy had a one second prayer.

"Shrimp! TWIN-IMPACT!"

Luffy's fist hit hard, almost breaking Buggy's more-than cushioned nose before all of his fingers flicked too, the generated shockwave sending the abomination against nature high into the sky, turning into a twinkle on the horizon.

Zoro whistled. "Did'ja kill him?"

Luffy shook both of his hands as they transformed back into their natural states, raising an eyebrow. "Hmmmm- I feel like I didn't. But if he falls into the sea, I'unno"

"Why are you so _Ok _with killing a man?" Nami mumbled shivering at the sight.

"...Nami, we _are _pirates, _and _he tried to stab me in the kidney."

"...well when you put it that way..."

* * *

**A/N: **Hope you all enjoyed it, see you all on the next one!


End file.
